11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi,

I wanted to know which sports are popular at:

Royal Grammar
John Hampden
Burnham and Chesham

Thanks

Scorch wrote:Hi,

I wanted to know which sports are popular at:

Royal Grammar
John Hampden
Burnham and Chesham

Thanks

Do you actually mean, which are most popular? Or which sports are offered? Presumably the former, because the latter will almost certainly be listed on the schools' websites, but usually in year 7, at least, it doesn't matter whether one likes a sport, or not - if it's on the timetable, one has to do it.

My son is at RGS and the main team sports there are Rugby, Hockey and Cricket.

At Burnham it's mainly rugby & netball, but most sports are covered. They have a big dance & gym show once a year.

I have two DS at BGS. Sport doesn’t seem to be such a big deal here as at most of the other grammars, specifically boys’ grammars. There is a good range, but they don’t seem to concentrate on anything for very long. E.g this term is mainly rugby focused but after this they will switch to football and won’t play rugby again (in PE lessons) until next September. Cricket seems to be the most popular sport, played all summer, plus Future Legends are in once a week to coach those that want after school from September onwards at a very cheap rate. If your son is not very sporty BGS is in my opinion quite good sportswise as less sporty kids get a lot more chance to participate in teams etc. than at a lot of the more famously sporty schools. DS1 who is badly coordinated and not fast is enjoying sport here a lot more than at primary. If you are a very sporty boy it may not be the best.

I can’t much help if you have a DD, though I believe the netball provision is quite good and hockey ok.

Thank you for the info on Burnham.

He has played football and basketball for the last few years but his newest passion is Cricket and I have a feeling he will want to purse this long term. I am sure some schools are very competitive, I just went to ensure he would have the opportunity to play, ie. there will be kids who are in the squads and others not.

You may already have seen this, but here is the BGS autumn list of extracurricular clubs. In the summer cricket (& tennis to a lesser extent) would replace rugby, football & netball. My boys never played hockey in 7 years at BGS (they may have done in lessons!) and I've never seen any mention of a hockey club.
In a mixed school there is, of course, a much smaller pool of boys or girls to choose from for teams. This could either mean it's easier to get a place in a team, or that there are fewer teams for each sport.
I know that cricket is very popular at John Hampden, and they run a summer tour to Sri Lanka (or certainly have done in the past). BGS runs a rugby & netball tour to New Zealnad evry couple of years.

My DS1 at BGS became obsessed with cricket last summer and is definitely encouraged there and given opportunities even though he is a novice and not the sportiest of boys. He loves the Future Legends sessions after school on a Thursday. If you are a child who already plays club cricket to a high level it may not be as good as other schools.