Sport

Our aim as a department is to ensure that physical education, sport, and physical activity should be an integral part of every Exeter School pupil’s school experience and weekly routine. We want all our pupils to find a sport or activity that they are passionate about and one they will continue to participate in when they leave school.

We want our pupils to be active and engaged in weekly physical activity, to enjoy participating in physical education, sport & physical activity. We also want all of our pupils to have a sense of achievement from their involvement in curriculum lessons and extracurricular activities and understand the benefits of being physically active on their well-being and physical, social, and moral development.

The department

We are very fortunate to have an excellent team with a physical education department made up of seven full time and two part time PE teachers who are supported by two athletic development coaches and a hockey performance coach. There are also twenty experienced academic staff, many of whom have been involved in competitive sport, who help coach and manage teams and specialist external coaches in football, hockey, swimming, squash, and tennis.

Facilities

The schools’ sports facilities are outstanding, a 25-acre site which includes superb playing fields, a set of hockey astro-turfs as well as excellent indoor facilities with a 25m indoor pool, sports hall and fitness suite including conditioning room, aerobic room, and dance studio. The pupils also have access to two squash courts.

Physical education & games curriculum

Pupils have timetabled physical education lessons throughout their time at the junior school as well as in the Third Form, Fourth Form and Lower Fifth (Years 7 to 9). Pupils participate in modules ranging from parkour gymnastics to swimming. The focus of each lesson is to ensure that pupils are enjoying being active whilst also learning and understanding about the importance of physical activity and developing skills such as teamwork, resilience, and communications skills.

Similarly, all pupils at Exeter School have a timetabled games session for their age group. In the senior school, pupils in the Third and Fourth Form (Years 7 & 8) take part in the main sport of the term. For boys this is rugby (autumn term), hockey (spring term), and cricket/tennis (summer term) and for girls this is hockey, netball, tennis/cricket. All sessions are led by PE & games specialists and are adapted to make them challenging, fun and age and ability appropriate. Pupils in Lower and Middle Fifth (Years 9 & 10) continue to be offered outstanding provision in the schools’ major sports but are also offered a greater breadth of games options with access to swimming, squash, health & fitness and much more.

Sports tours

Exeter School has an excellent tradition of sports tours with trips to South Africa, Dubai, Argentina and most recently Canada. The touring schedule and aims have recently been amended with the senior hockey (boys and girls) and Rugby (boys) touring bi-annually and the U15/U14 netball and cricket squads planning on touring in the UK. There are several tours confirmed with the U18 boys’ and girls’ hockey teams due to tour Holland in October 2023 and 1st XV and 2nd XV boys’ rugby squads will travel to Portugal in October 2024. There will also be opportunities for the U15 & U14 netballers and cricket players with the cricket squads heading to Lancashire County cricket club and surrounding areas in the Summer of 2024 and netballers to Cardiff and the Celtic Dragons Netball programme at Easter 2024. Similar opportunities will be given to these year groups bi-annually.

Come along to our whole school open morning on Friday 24 January 9-10.45am to hear from the Head, have a pupil-led tour around classes in action and have your questions answered by our friendly admissions team.

Register your place here