Valkenburg Sports Tour
In the early hours of Easter Monday, 92 students and nine members of staff set off for our long-awaited return to Valkenburg, Holland, for our bi-annual sports tour. We had the busiest week of training sessions and matches against Dutch teams and other touring British sides, as well as experiencing all the other excursions available in the town.
Each morning the hockey and football players undertook a training session led by professional coaches, and then they set out in the evening to play fixtures against local Dutch clubs. Students were able to put into practice what they had learnt in the morning and we had some fantastic results. Both the A teams for football and hockey had resounding wins at their first fixtures, but then had to battle harder in later matches. The B teams learnt much from their wins, narrow losses and draws. In the final tournament, Football A were overall winners and Football B came 3rd.
The netballers had two full days of coaching from a variety of coaches, including Kai, a member of the England Men’s u23 team and coach for Saracens Mavericks development squads. On the final afternoon there was a tournament with all of the touring schools. All teams acquitted themselves extremely well, implementing what they had learnt throughout the week. The Year 9 A team were runners-up in their tournament and the Year 8 A team were their tournament winners.
Away from the sports field, students enjoyed laser tag, tobogganing, a chair lift, Bounce and an evening at a pancake house, as well as the obligatory shopping trip in the beautiful town. The whole week was rounded off with a disco attended by all the touring schools from the UK.
From the moment we left Hitchin till arriving back home again, students were polite, hard-working and good fun. Even the confiscation of their phones for an hour as a penalty for locking themselves out of their rooms was taken in good spirits!
The HGS core values of Aspiration, Perseverance, Kindness, Respect and Positivity were all on display. Masterclass tour staff, sports coaches, coach drivers and hotel staff were all complimentary of them. On the ferry home a leader from another school stopped us to say "how polite and well-mannered your girls are, a real credit to your school."
All tour members, students and staff enjoyed their time immensely, creating memories that will last a very long time.
Mrs Edwards (PE Dept)
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