Patron: Her Majesty The Queen
The new sports hub at Gordon’s School, serving both the students of the school and the local community, was officially opened today (Tuesday 17th January 2023) by His Royal Highness The Earl of Wessex, who also met students and staff on site and unveiled a plaque to mark the occasion.
Completed in 2020, the sports hub, incorporates a sports hall, all-weather pitch, changing rooms and café, and complements the already extensive sporting facilities at this co-educational state boarding school in West End, Surrey.
The Earl was received by Gordon Foundation Vice President and His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Surrey, Michael More-Molyneaux, who presented Gordon’s student Leonor Nunes a Lord-Lieutenant’s Cadet; Headmaster Andrew Moss and Director of Sport Jamie Harrison.
During his visit, The Earl met students who were using the equipment in the newly-built Fitness Suite, indoor rowing centre and sports hall as well as those playing rugby and football on the sports pitches.
Currently preparing for the National Indoor Rowing Championships and the Earl heard that as well as training in the mornings from 6.15am for an hour, they are also back in the ergo centre in the evenings after school. Three times Olympics cox Alan Inns, who coaches the students, said afterwards: “His Royal Highness certainly knows about boats and the positions in them”.
In addition to chatting to players and teaching staff, His Royal Highness enjoyed the opportunity to take on some of the students in a game of table tennis!
Gordon’s School was founded in 1885 at the insistence of Queen Victoria, as the National Memorial to General Gordon. Originally a home for ‘necessitous boys’, it evolved into a boys’ school in 1943, becoming Gordon’s School when girls first arrived in 1990.
Today this non-selective state day and boarding school, voted Boarding School of the Year in the TES Schools Awards 2022 and judged outstanding by OFSTED in the last four inspections, has 946 students of which almost 300 are boarders.
The Earl of Wessex, who last visited the school in October 2014 for the unveiling of the restored statue of General Gordon on a camel, also spent time with the school’s student Wellbeing Prefects and mental health first aiders and learned about how pastoral staff care for boarding students, particularly those whose families are in the Armed Forces.
Half of those boarding at Gordon’s are from military families. The Earl also heard how Houseparents Sam and Daisy Cooper help the 11 year olds from these families as they start their boarding journey, and about the package of support for their mental wellbeing that is in place.
Sport is a vital part of the school’s commitment to supporting students’ mental wellbeing as well as their physical and emotional development. Every student has the opportunity to take part in some form of sport or activity daily, with a choice of over 50. Thanks to the new sports hall, further sports have been added to the list such as badminton, futsal, table tennis and indoor cricket and Year 7 boarders enthusiastically demonstrated one of their favourite weekend activities, dodgeball.
In 2020 Gordon’s formed a partnership with Harlequins, providing a DiSE (Diploma in Sporting Excellence) programme for talented 16 to 18 year olds wishing to pursue a career in professional rugby while receiving an excellent education. During the visit, His Royal Highness met students on the Harlequins Partnership Programme getting ready for their 7s tour to Portugal and hoping to emulate the two who left Gordon’s last Summer with contracts for the Harlequins Senior Academy and more recently selections to play for their country.
The school also partners Aldershot Town FC, whose players train on the 3G pitch and use the sports hub between four and five times a week through the season. The Earl met some of the Vanarama National League’s U21s players and the club’s Chairman Shahid Azeem, a Trustee of the Gordon Foundation, Vice President of the Community Foundation of Surrey and former High Sheriff of Surrey.
Participation in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme is strongly encouraged at Gordon’s as a means of building skills in students such as teamwork, survival and leadership. This year over 100 Year 9 students have started their journey towards their Bronze Awards. The Earl of Wessex spent time talking to some of the Year 10 students taking their Silver Awards about their early morning training sessions and the command and leadership tasks they were demonstrating.
School members joined with Trustees, Governors and staff in the Sports Hall for the unveiling of the plaque by the Earl of Wessex, which will be placed inside the entrance to the Sports Hub.
Head Boy Sam Moreau and Head Girl Libby Lomas thanked His Royal Highness for the visit. Libby said: “I hope the students have shown you what a privilege it is to have all these brilliant facilities and how they utilise them to ensure they have the best chance to succeed in one of the various sports Gordon’s has to offer”.
Sam added: “We’d like to thank you for visiting Gordon’s school and hope the opening today successfully showcased how the school has continued to improve its sporting facilities since your last visit in 2014. As a student body we are encouraged to develop our performance both on and off the field of play and with the official opening of the Sports Hub we are now able to excel in an array of sporting disciplines. Sir, it has been an honour to welcome you here today and we hope that you get the chance to visit us again in the future.”
Afterwards, Gordon’s Headmaster Andrew Moss thanked The Earl of Wessex for his time and interest in the school and for unveiling the plaque, saying: “We were delighted to welcome The Earl of Wessex back to Gordon’s to officially open the new Sports Hub, which is already proving to be a well-utilised and much enjoyed addition to the school and community”.
Categories: Gordon's School School News
