SPORTS INITIATIVE
A select number of girls in Year 8 and 9 took part in an exciting sporting initiative through Sky Sports Living For Sport, in partnership with the Youth Sport Trust on Thursday 10th November at Howell’s School.
We were joined by professional Athlete Mentor, Francesca Jones. Francesca has been one of the top Rhythmic Gymnasts in Great Britain for almost eight years and has won the Welsh and British senior titles six times. This gave her the opportunity to go to London 2012 Olympic Games, three Commonwealth Games including 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games where she carried the Welsh Flag in the opening ceremony and won a total of six medals, including Wales’ first medal followed by Wales’ first Gold Medal. The most prestigious award of Francesca’s career came in the closing ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games. She received the David Dixon Award for the Most Inspirational Athlete which was very humbling and a great honour for her as it defined a lifetime of training, commitment, hard-work and perseverance.
Francesca worked with the students to develop confidence in sport using the ‘Six Keys to Success’. The top six life-skills Francesca identified as enabling them to achieve success in their chosen career path.
The girls had a great afternoon and look forward to welcoming Francesca back in the near future.
ROWING
Talia G (Year 10), Menna H, Olivia W and Becca P (Year 11) represented Llandaff Rowing Club in the HSL rowing boat at the Henley Head on Saturday 5th November 2016. The girls rowed well and enjoyed rowing in the new HSL Boat!
CROSS COUNTRY
On Wednesday 2nd November, three students represented HSL at Trelai Park in the Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan Schools Girls’ Cross-Country League. It was a lovely afternoon, the course was firm and fast!
Congratulations to Holly B (Year 10) who came 10th in 18.33 and Amy T (Year 12) who came 23rd in 21.33 in the Senior Girls, 4300m. Congratulations to Fiona B (Year 8) who ran in the U14 Girls, 3500m and came 6th in 14.25. ICE-SKATING
ICE-SKATING
Charlotte H (Year 10) attend the Cardiff Syncro Competition last weekend. Charlotte and the Junior Team were placed first. Congratulations on an amazing achievement Charlotte!
NETBALL
Congratulations to Bella M and Rebecca D (Year 7) and Jennifer E (Year 8) who were selected for the U13 Cardiff LA Netball Hub Squad. The girls will be involved in playing other LA Hub county age groups for the upcoming season!
Year 7 Netball teams played Whitchurch on Monday 14th November. It was wonderful to see the girls developing their positional play and working together, the A team won 6-2 and B team drew 2-2. Congratulations to all the girls who played, and well done to Ruby S and Taylor P for achieving man of the match.
HOCKEY
The Year 7 Hockey Squad had the fantastic opportunity to play in a superb match against Caerleon School on Thursday 10th November.
The A team played an excellent match. At half time the score was 1-1, but in the second half a penalty corner strike from Rebecca D made the score 2-1 to Howell’s. A splendid victory for Howell’s girls!
The B team played exceptional well, scoring 5-0 in the first half. In the second half, Caerleon defended strongly and Howell’s only managed to score one more goal, making the overall score 6-0 to Howell’s.
The C team match was played with great spirit. Howell’s had to defend strongly against a very strong Caerleon team who scored two late goals in the second half. The girls created a lot of pressure for Caerleon and committed highly throughout the match!
Well done to all the girls who played!
The Year 8 Hockey team played Plasmawr on Wednesday 9th November in a very competitive game. Howell’s raced into a 3-0 lead by half time with Annabelle L (2) and Sophie C (1) scoring the goals! The girls defended well in the second half with the final score 3-1 to Howell’s! Congratulations to all the girls who played!
A combination of Year 9 and Year 10 students formed the Under 15 Hockey Team that took part in the GDST Sports Rally in Oxford on Thursday 10th November. After a long drive, departing school at 6am, the girls took on Wimbledon High School in their first match of the day at 9.30am. Despite playing well and forcing the opposing goalkeeper into a number of saves, the girls narrowly lost 1-0 but took many positives from the performance. Immediately after, the girls took on Norwich High School and played out a 0-0 draw despite again playing particularly well. The good play was duly rewarded in the following three fixtures, with wins against Newcastle High School (4-0), Sheffield High School (1-0) and Northwood College (4-0). In each game, the play was of a very high standard with goals coming from a huge range of girls. On the back of three wins, one draw and one loss, the girls advanced to the quarter final to take on the winner of one of the other four groups. In arguably their most convincing performance of the day, the Howell's team defeated Royal High School, Bath 3-0 and were now clearly beaming with confidence. Another group winner met them in the semi-final - Shrewsbury High School. In what proved to be an incredibly tense match, Howell's took an early 1-0 lead before being pegged back in the second half. Twenty-six minutes of hockey couldn't separate the teams so penalty shuffles were required. As with the Team GB Hockey Girls in Rio, Howell's held their nerve and won the shootout in sudden death, with Goalkeeper Ffion H (Year 10) coming to the rescue. The day then went full circle, with Howell's finding themselves up against Wimbledon High School. This time it was the final, and both teams had experienced a full day of exhausting hockey. The Wimbledon side played with speed and tenacity and were able to take an early lead in the first half. This lead was then doubled in the second half without reply from Howell's, meaning Wimbledon High School were crowned champions of the GDST! It was a best-ever finish for Howell's in a GDST Hockey event, and with many of the girls being in Year 9, confidence is very high going into next year's event!
Congratulations to Sophie G, Lily R and Ffion H (Year 9) and Charlotte J (Year 11) who played for U16s Wales at the recent Future’s Cup Hockey Tournament in St Albans at half term. As this was a GB tournament, the girls got to both watch and play hockey at an incredibly high standard, which was a great development opportunity. They all played very well, congratulations to all four of them.
On Saturday 12th of November, Howell’s Year 7 and 8 Hockey teams played Redmaids, Bristol. The game was a great learning curve for the teams who experienced high level hockey play. Despite the final scores resulting in wins to Redmaids, the girls played a difficult matches and worked hard as a team. Well done to the Year 9 team who won 3-2. Congratulations to Becky L, Sukie W and Ruby S (Year 7) and Fiona W (Year 8), Nia H (Year 9), Ffion H (Year 10) for achieving man of the match.
GYMNASTICS
Congratulations to the Year 7 Gymnastics Squad who competed at Sport Cardiff Gymnastics Competition on Monday 14th November. The girls performed excellently in what was a great level of competition. All their practicing had paid off and their routines were wonderfully executed. Well done to the six students who came 2nd beating 13 other teams! We look forward to the next round and receiving your individual results.
SWIMMING
Well done to all those who took part to represent Howell’s in the U15s GDST Swimming Gala on Thursday, 10th November. The competition was extremely high. We are waiting to hear our placing in swimming from the results, however the Year 9/10 team were the group winners and got to the final narrowly losing to Wimbledon 2-0. Well done girls!