On Wednesday 30th March, we had our Annual Sports Awards Evening; however, because of Covid this is the first one I got to attend! I wish I had been able to go in the Thirds and Lower Fourth as it was such an amazing night with a great positive spirit and atmosphere. The evening was a celebration of the sporting success at Francis Holland, and there was a lot to celebrate! We had two lovely guest speakers; Olympic sprinter Desirèe Henry and GB Hockey player Sarah Evans. The sportswomen talked about their achievements which were truly fantastic, from Sarah coming third place in the European Hockey Championships, to Desirèe claiming a bronze medal in the Olympics for the 4 x 100m relay race. Both had such incredible energy and it was truly inspiring to listen to them talk about their journeys. Desirèe talked about the importance of self esteem and enthusiasm within her sport and Sarah spoke about how she learnt more when things went wrong than when things went right. It was such an honour to be presented prizes by these two remarkable women. A huge congratulations to anyone who won a prize and thank you for the parents for coming as well. Special thanks to Ms Westwood for organising the event and to the rest of the Sports Department who spoke so well, and for making sport such a fun experience for us pupils (as it should be!).

By Imogen, UIV

On Wednesday afternoon, 18 girls all the way from the Thirds to Upper Sixth took part in a sprint masterclass on Paddington Rec with Desirèe Henry, who won a bronze medal in the 4 x 100m relay at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and a silver medal in the 4 × 100m relay at the 2017 World Athletics Championships.

She took us through her bespoke training warm up, then introduced us to some really fun drills which brought all the year groups together. We learnt about block starts to improve our starting technique and finished off with some intensely competitive shuttle relays which everyone took part in, including Desirèe, Ms Westwood and Miss Herrera.

Desirèe, alongside Commonwealth Games and European Championships medal winning hockey player Sarah Evans, was also a special guest presenter at our Sports Awards yesterday evening. As well as commenting on how much she enjoyed her day with FHS yesterday, she extended a very special thank you to Ms Westwood, who we found out used to be her PE teacher!

Thank you so much to Desirèe and Sarah for presenting our Awards, to Desirèe for giving up her valuable time to coach us and making the session so much fun, and to the PE Department and particularly Ms Westwood for orchestrating this amazing opportunity. What a day for FHS Sport!

By Ella Newell, Lower Sixth