By Natasha Bennett, Year 7

Last week, the Year 7 A netball team travelled to Croydon High School for a GDST tournament. As it was our first big tournament, we were very excited to play and compete against teams from 23 GDST schools from all over the country.

We began the day a bit weary and tired as we had to arrive at school by 7 am to make it to Croydon on time, but despite the long coach journey we arrived raring to go!

Our first match was against Northwood College  and we got off to a really strong start with a 7-1 win, which we were all over the moon with. Then, after a pep talk with Mrs Dunkley, we built up our confidence with each game as we went on to win the next six matches in our Pool against Oxford High School (5-2), Streatham & Clapham High School (7-0), Sheffield Girls High School (5-2), Northampton High School (12-1), Shrewsbury High School (8-0) and Portsmouth High School (10-2)

Then we faced a tough match against Putney High School who we had never beaten as juniors before. However, we used Mrs Dunkley’s advice and remained strong to come out as the winning team 5-1. With our confidence and team spirit on a high we  won our last two pool matches convincingly, scoring 11 goals against both Norwich High School and Sydenham High School with just letting in one goal. We had qualified for the final as group winners!

In the final we had to play against Wimbledon High, who were the only team we had lost to this term, when we lost in October to them in the Sistersnsport National Cup. Despite us playing our hearts out, we were tired from the previous 10 matches and sadly lost 2-8. But we left with our heads held high as we were told that the last time NHEHS U12s had come runners up in the GDST tournament was in 2014 when the current Year 11s achieved second place! 

A huge thank you to Mrs Dunkley for taking us, giving us inspiring team talks and keeping us focused even though we were tired, to Miss Nicholas for supporting us as always and to the whole team for playing a happy and successful day of netball! 

We  all really enjoyed the day, playing against totally new teams and meeting netballers who were friendly and chatty. We were very lucky to have the chance to play against teams from all over England so thank you to the GDST, Portstmouth High and Croydon High for organising the tournament!