After five gruelling games in the ultra-competitive world of District Premier League Football, the Year 9 Boys found themselves in joint top spot in the league, which earned them a place in the League Final. St Michaels were the opposition and having beaten them already in the league confidence was high. A slow and lacklustre start saw the Year 9’s under pressure early on but thankfully a breakaway Harrison Chick goal settled the team. St Michaels equalised almost immediately but the players responded well and took the lead again after a robust challenge on the goalkeeper By Arjen Gajar lead to the ball finding its way into the net. Again, S
t Michaels equalised almost immediately from a back-post header with the half finishing at 2-2.
Knowing that the half time team talk would be crucial, the experienced Mr Gallagher roused his players and made 3 tactical changes for the second half. St Joan’s started the second half on the front foot and were rewarded with an outstanding counter attacking goal. The ball was played out from the back to Travis McKenna on the left wing, who had the vision to spot the run of Harrison Chick charging through midfield. Harrison stormed through the defence and slotted the ball home. 3-2. With the end of the game fast approaching, St Michaels threw everything forward (including their goalkeeper and centre back) but the defence stood firm. With seconds left on the clock, Giacomo Viazanni found himself one on one with the last defender. He bullied the defender off the ball, got his head up and picked out the run of second half substitute Gabriel Neves. Gabriel duly rounded the goalkeeper and calmly slotted the ball into the net to spark jubilant celebrations. 4-2 winners and District Premier League Champions!
Well done to all of the Year 9 Boys involved, who have been a credit to the school through their effort, performance and attitude throughout the year. Roll on next season!
Category : Physical Education
Mr Sweeney’s 24 Hour Cycle Challenge
Congratulations to Mr Sweeney who managed to cycle from St Joan of Arc School, Rickmansworth to the five cathedrals of Northampton, Nottingham, Norwich, Brentwood and Westminster in 22 hours! Thank you to everyone who donated. It’s not too late to donate now!
Donate online at www.virginmoneygiving.com/udayan
or TEXT “UDAYAN” TO “70085” to give £5*
*Standard message rates apply.
Chess Cup 2016
Images from this year’s Chess Cup
What an exciting day all round!
On the 7th December, as part of the Arsenal in the Community initiative, Arsenal Ladies and Hertsmere Borough Council’s commitment to delivering football and educational sessions in the borough, we were lucky enough to be invited to the first Arsenal Ladies Double Club Tournament! This was held at Arsenal’s Training Centre in London Colney, which is generally NOT open to the public!
As per the Double Club model, teams from across the area competed in both a football tournament and a classroom based literacy session at the Training Centre. The classroom session and the tournament carried equal weighting towards the team’s overall score.
Our Girls won 2 out of the 4 games that we played. Playing with sheer determination, teamwork and sportsmanship.
In our classroom based activities, the girls took part in a range of educational literacy based activities. To finalise, each team had to prepare a discussion topic to present to the other schools, with arguments for and against. Our topic area was related to the new FIFA 16 now including woman international teams. The girls’ presentation was unbelievable, I could not have been prouder!
We finished 1st overall in the competition!!! WELL DONE GIRLS!!!!
As if that was not all enough, the Girls were then introduced to international female football icon Kelly Smith, where they were given the opportunity to ask her questions and take photographs with her.
It was an incredible experience for the girls and a day, I hope, they will remember for a very long time.
Miss Beament
JOA Dance Show 2015
This year saw some new faces braving our stage along with an increasing number of leaders adding their own creativity and flare to our show. Since September, the PE Department have seen numerous groups using the gym, along with any free space they could find around school to practise their dances over and over again. The dedication some of these dances have seen has been commendable and I thank every performer for their hard work and pride that they have shown for this years show.
I would like to congratulate our dance leaders, Daire Quinn (Year 13), Aisling Knight (Year 13) and Filipa Ferreira (Year 13) who I am so glad have been able to end their time at St. Joan of Arc on an ultimate high due to their hard work and excellent choreography. They have been an asset to the development of dance over the past few years and I wish them the best of luck in their future studies.
Also to our upcoming leaders Daisy Ashton (Year 11) and Abbie Wildman (Year 10) who choreographed our finale dance for a large group of Year 8 girls. An excellent piece showing your wonderful flare for dance.
It has been an absolute pleasure to see another Dance Show through and each year our pupils show off how much talent they have. Thank you for all of your hard work and to all those involved in the set up, and running of the show.
Mrs Kane.
On the 2nd March, Joan of Arc were invited to Derby Soccerdome for the National Finals of the ESFA Munich Trophies U12 5-a-side competition. Our school reserved the right to participate at these finals after our Year 7 Girls won both their local and regional tournaments to get there (A massive achievement in itself!).
We watched from the sidelines as the Girls battled against the best teams in the Country, showing amazing teamwork, determination and ability. We won 1 of our 3 games, unfortunately meaning we did not qualify past the group stages of the competition. We played a friendly at the end of the tournament and won 4-2: this helped ease the pain a little from their temporarily broken hearts!
St Joan of Arc are incredibly proud of our Girls being crowned overall 5th best in the country out of 1000 schools that entered!
What an unbelievable achievement. The most memorable and proudest day in my career and I hope a day that the students will remember and cherish forever.
Miss Beament
Watford Observer Chess Cup Review
Watford Observer
Hat-trick hero Clewley helps Rickmansworth School regain Chess Cup
Captain Dom Clewley led from the front as Rickmansworth School beat St Joan of Arc 25-21 in dramatic fashion to regain the Chess Cup.
Wednesday saw the ninth annual rugby match between the two schools, with St Joan of Arc going into the clash as defending champions after their 12-10 win 12 months ago to claim the trophy for a fourth time since the inaugural contest in 2006.
Rickmansworth started positively, scoring an early penalty and try to take 10-0 lead.
Rickmansworth’s pressure continued, with Clewley scoring his first of three tries, to make the score 15-0.
Not deterred, St Joan of Arc came roaring back from the kick off. A quickly-taken penalty saw Joan of Arc dart in under the posts to reduce the deficit to 15-7.
With half-time close though, their opponents scored a slightly fortuitous try to make the score 20-7 at the interval.
Two converted tries in the second half saw a turnaround in momentum and on the scoreboard, with Joan of Arc leading 21-20.
But in one final twist, Rickmansworth retook the lead late on with Clewley completing his hat-trick to secure a 25-21 win.
Clewley was rightly named man-of-the-match for Rickmansworth, with Conor Hewitt-Coleman picking up the same accolade for Joan of Arc.
Rickmansworth’s coach Sam Perry said afterwards: “The Chess Cup is such a fantastic event for both schools, demonstrated by the amount of supporters here today. Today’s game was of a superb standard and credit to both teams.”
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JOA Ski Trip 2014 – Courmayeur, Italy – OFFICIAL VIDEO
Ever wondered what a JOA ski trip is like?
Watch this video to find out and watch some of the footage captured on our latest trip to Courmayeur in Italy, during the February half-term break.
Yeat 9, 10 and 11 meet St Clement Danes Netball!
Our Year 9, 10 and 11 Netball teams played St Clement Danes on Tuesday 22md October. St Clement Danes are always tough competition for St Joan of Arc, however this year the games were extremenly close with St Joan of Arc playing some of their best Netball.
Year 11 were using this game as their GCSE Netball assessment performance and really raised the bar to show off how well they can play. St Clement Danes unfortunately took the lead towards the end with the game resulting 25-17 but the girls should be very proud of their performance and keeping up with play throughout the game.
Year 10 had a fantastic game. Again, some of these girls are taking GCSE PE, with Netball being one of their strongest sports and they proved how well they can perform in this game. The game ended 18-15 to St. Clement Danes, so close and again a very powerful performance from a very strong St Joan of Arc team.
The year 9 game was the closest game throughout the 40 minutes. Our year 9’s have had a slight change in players this year and it proves to be working going by their results so far. Very strong, acurate play by all players on the team with a score of 21-18 to St. Clement Danes who just took the lead in the last quarter.
The Girls PE Department are very proud of how strong Netball is this year and a big well done goes out to all girls this year!! 🙂
Year 11 Girls’ Fitness Treat!
On Monday 21st October we arranged for a Fitness Coach, Danielle West (one of the Year 11 Girls mums!), to come in and teach a Body Conditioning session for 60 of the Year 11 Girls.
We aim to inspire the Girls in Year 11 with a range of different Fitness Classes that are available and popular within local communities and Fitness Centers. This will hopefully give them more incentive to stay active and involved in exercise; as this can often become a time when Girls become disinterested and lazy.
This was an excellent treat for the girls to finish their Fitness unit on. Within the unit we have looked at a variety of fun, exciting ways to stay fit and healthy, including Body Pump, Circuit Training, Aerobics, Zumba, Pilates.
A big Thank You goes out to Danielle for inspiring the girls with her highly motivating, vibrant, stimulating session she ran. The girls were really buzzing afterwards! Thank You so much for your time.
Action shots