Reviews

Sport is an integral part of education at Parkside with a strong ‘Sport for All’ ethos, ensuring we nurture individual talents and interests so that every child can excel.

We believe teaching the key skills and attributes of outstanding sportsmanship, grit and determination and effective teamwork help all our pupils to strive for success and reach their potential on the sports pitch. Most important of all is that each individual experiences fun, enjoyment and a sense of purpose when they participate in sport; developing into a life-long love of physical activity.

Through our dedicated team of PE and games specialists and coaches, as well as our links with Chelsea FC and London Irish RFC, we provide a diverse curriculum of team and individual sports across our extensive sports facilities; including a 22m indoor swimming pool, Sports Centre, tennis courts, cricket nets and numerous outdoor pitches. Sport is taught by the same specialist teachers throughout the Parkside journey (from Nursery to Year 8). Therefore, our sports teachers really get to know each individual and what motivates them throughout their education.

Sport teaching is based on our Parkside’s ‘Steps to Sporting Success’ programme; designed to teach the boys to self-reflect and review their own performance. This is threaded through all sporting activities and in conjunction with the sports staff, will ensure performance targets are set and worked towards, with specific feedback given. This also allows them to work both individually and collaboratively with others to improve individual and team performance, to show perseverance and to develop greater communication skills in line with Parkside’s Core Learning skills. Further to this, we run an Elite Sporting Programme designed for those boys who demonstrate excellence and/or talent in a sport. This will ensure a rigorous programme of fitness, drills, practice and reflection to help the boys to understand what it takes both physically and mentally to perform at the highest level.

For those boys who may struggle with some or all team games activities, we run an ‘Options Programme’ which helps supplement their games experiences with more individually based activities to provide an opportunity for a sense of purpose and success in a way that suits them.  

All pupils have the opportunity to represent the school in inter-school matches and tournaments. Many of our top performers will go on to receive county or national honours as well as receiving sports scholarships to their chosen senior schools.

We truly believe that sport plays an important role in building resilience, perseverance, confidence and teamwork – all necessary skills to master if you want to achieve in life. Competition is part of real life and as such, competitive sport is part of our sporting expectations. We believe every Parkside boy should embrace the commitment required to reach their sporting potential.

An example of the sports curriculum on offer at Parkside are below: