SPORTING LIFE AT BEECHEN CLIFF SCHOOL

Sport is an integral part of life at Beechen Cliff School; it underpins the school’s ethos of developing well-rounded learners. As such Beechen Cliff School offers a vast array of activities, academic courses, sporting clubs and societies. All pupils enjoy at least two hours of PE lessons every week as a very minimum. Extended courses are also offered at Key Stage 4 and 5 wherein pupils can secure an A level PE (OCR), GCSE Sports Studies (OCR) and the Junior Sports Leaders Award.


Extra Curricular opportunities are vast with over half of our pupils taking part in our sports clubs. Our major sports include rugby, football, hockey, cricket and tennis who all host regular training sessions with dedicated staff members. Other sports include athletics, basketball, badminton, table tennis, rowing, cross-country, shooting, climbing and fencing. Likewise, all of these activities have allocated training times and fixtures. Often, through funding from the SSCo programme we secure external coaching and expertise to assist in these sessions. The school also offers a number of sports trips such as cricket tours to Devon and Barbados, a rugby tour to Montpellier and an annual visit to Lord’s Cricket Ground.

Our fixture list is extensive across all of our sports. We compete against the local independent and state schools, involving regular Saturday morning fixtures (see www.schoolsports.co.uk). Beechen Cliff competes in the National Daily Mail Cup, ESFA and Aegon Schools Tennis competitions as well as county and district competitions in most sports. In 2010, Beechen Cliff won the Avon Schools u18’s Hockey Championship and u16’s Somerset Cup rugby title.

In addition, opportunities within Outdoor Education are also extensive. In the lower school pupils experience regular visits to the school’s cottage in Tir-y-Cwm and the activity camp at Llain. The school offers the Duke of Edinburgh Gold and Silver Award for its pupils in years 10-13 and pupils fully commit themselves in the Ten Tors event annually. Outdoor education trips have recently been extended to South Africa where pupils have supported local schools during their visit.

Beechen Cliff has a rich sporting history with a host of famous ‘old boys’. Sir Roger Bannister, Amy Williams, Jason Gardner, John Hall and Paul Tisdale are just a few of the many internationals appearing proudly on our honours board in the foyer. Although participation in sport is crucial to all pupils at Beechen Cliff, our high achievers are recognised, celebrated and most importantly supported in their quest to achieve in sport through our Gifted and Talented programme.

Our house structure allows the pupils at Beechen Cliff to compete for their house team. Regular house fixtures in our major sports are fiercely competed within year groups to earn points for the much coveted ‘Rose Bowl’.