On Friday 1st March, whilst the rest of the school were on their morning break, the year 8 netball squads were on the coach with the year 6s and were heading off to Condover Hall in Shrewsbury. The bus ride was long so Mrs Bhadeshia and Mrs Calvert promised us we could stop off at the service stations for a break. I think everyone was relieved to be off the bus – even though it did have WiFi. I can tell you that the year 8s were especially happy about this and that meant that most of us watched movies during the long ride.
When we got there, we couldn’t contain our excitement and we couldn’t wait to get off the bus. Unfortunately, our dorms weren’t ready so we played hide-and-seek with Mrs Bhadeshia crawling through the bushes and mud to find us.
After dinner, there was a range of entertainment that we could all go to, however, I think that year 8 will agree with me when I say that the most entertaining was Mrs Bhadeshia’s dance to ‘This Is Me’ in the cafeteria. We also played a friendly netball match in the dark with South Hampstead and Putney using a size four football. We had also made plans to bring face masks on the trip so we put them on and let’s just say, we definitely didn’t look like ourselves.
The next day brought activities like Abseiling, The Leap Of Faith, Lazer Maze and Tunnelling. These activities kept the year 8s entertained through the morning until lunch whilst the year 6s were playing their first set of matches. This was the time to get our game faces on and start focusing on what were really there for – netball. We played four games that afternoon, winning three and losing one to Putney by one goal. However, we held our heads high and played exceptionally well in the next game. That night, year 8 all gathered in one dorm and had a night in. We played games like 21 Dares and Kiss, Marry, Kill.
Sunday came and we were ready to play some more netball. We had another four games, winning three and losing one to Oxford 3-1. Unfortunately, this meant we would not be able to go through to the semi-finals. Sydenham did brilliantly and I think we are all proud of ourselves. On behalf of the year 8 netball teams I would like to say a big thank you to Mrs Bhadeshia and Mrs Calvert for organising and taking us on such a wonderful, exciting trip and I hope the year 7s who will be going next year have as much fun as we did!
– Kayla, year 8
