Pre-Prep: Sports Day 2025
This was our third Pre-Prep Sports Day and we know that, as the day approaches, there are some nerves and a lot of excitement as the children start to prepare for their biggest sporting event of the year. For the teachers, one of the main worries is the weather! In the week leading up to Sports Day the weather wasn’t looking great, but in the end we were completely spoiled with blue skies and glorious sunshine and, importantly for the High Jump bar, very little wind!
The day started with a brilliant performance by the pipe band. Suitably inspired, the children headed off to the first Athletics events, the 800m and Long Jump. We had two very exciting 800m races; in the first race, four boys beat the existing record, with Rufus, Rory T and Rory Th all finishing inside the time but none of them running as fast as Harris, the winner who now holds the record with a time of 3m14s.
The second race saw some of our youngest runners, including Flora and William, who are both in our Reception class, running the 800m. They kept running all the way and had enormous smiles on their faces throughout.
We had 30 competitors for the Long Jump, which was very exciting, and they produced some super results. In the girls’ competition, Iris won the day with a distance of 2.60m and in the boys’, Harris set his second record of the day with a jump of 2.97m.
Our next event was the 400m, for which we had 3 races and even more records! Once all of the times had been checked, this turned about to be a very close contest with both Rory T coming second inside the existing record time. Once again, however, Harris had pipped him to the line and has lowered the record time to 1m27s.
One of the highlights of the day is the High Jump competition, as everyone gathers around to watch, creating a very supportive atmosphere. As well as the parents, we had most of the school cheering and encouraging the children, whether they made the jump or not. In the end the winner was Hamish with a height of 0.95m.
The next races are what we call the ‘Fun Races’ – not that the others aren’t fun – these are some of those traditional sports day races that bring back memories from our own childhood. We did the potato and spoon, skipping, sack and 3-legged races, which all of the children enjoyed, bursting through the tape with smiles and laughter.
All too quickly, we came to our final individual events – the Rounders Ball and the 80m. The throwing was very impressive to watch. The boy's record was 21.9m which was created by Archie B in 2023. Struan beat it with a very impressive first throw. Rory T then stepped up to deliver an enormous throw, and we had to fetch the longer tape measure! For the third time on the day, Rory had broken an existing record, and this time, the record would be his – and we think that it will be for quite some time, as the new, longer tape measure recorded his throw at a whopping 31.5m! In the girls’ competition, Madeleine did brilliantly to set a new record with a throw of 15.00m.
As this drama was unfolding, we also staged four heats of the 80m. This is always a very fast and exciting race to watch and this time was no different. Ayleen was the fastest girl with a time of 13.86s and Rory Th the fastest boy with a time of 13.56s - both new records!
Our final event was the thrilling Patrol Relay. In order to ensure everyone took part we had 2 races. The first was a 6x66.6m race and the second was the more traditional 4x100m. The children had practised their handovers during the week and ran hard for their teammates, which made it very gripping to watch! The winners of the first race were the Woodies and the winners of the second race were the Wolves.
The children’s enthusiasm, courage, support for one another, celebration of their friends' successes and sheer enjoyment made the day a triumph. There are, however, trophies to be presented for the boy and girl who achieved the highest number of points. The results were as follows:
Girls’ Competition results:
Victrix Ludorum – Ayleen
2nd – Scout and Lettie
3rd – Iris
Boys’ Competition results:
Victor Ludorum – Harris
2nd – Rory T
3rd – Rory Th
Patrol Competition results:
1st – Wolves
2nd – Owls
3rd – Lions
4th – Woodies
Above: Wolves win Patrol Shield
After delicious picnics against the backdrop of much hammering and sawing in the Makerspace building site, everyone left for a very well-deserved half term break. A huge thank you to the children for their tremendous efforts, to the Form 1 helpers who did a brilliant job on the day that they finished their Common Entrance exams and to all the wonderful staff for their help preparing the children, setting up and organising what proved to be an action-packed and exciting event.
