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
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.”
© Copyright 2001-2014 Newsquest Media Group
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!! 🙂
Girls report on their triple success at the start of the netball season!
Netball Match Reports
SJA V St Margarets
(Away)
Thursday 26th September
YEAR 8
In the match against St Margarets we managed to leave in victory winning 18:7. We are very pleased with the outcome. Ellia, our Goal Attack, played exceptionally well, and her shooting was really on form. All the team played really well together and we were very pleased with our final result!
Elizabeth Mcevaddy- Year 8
Year 10
We were very pleased with our final score, winning 18-5 overall.
I (Sofia Franek) played the position of Centre. I defended the ball from the opposition and controlled the ball within the court well.
The position of Goal Attack was played by Emma Corkery, who attacked towards the ball and whose shooting was on top form.
Goal shooter, was played by Antonietta Catalanotto. She did a great job of getting herself free in the circle and grabbed every opportunity she could to get us another goal.
Olivia Martin played at Wing Attack, passing the ball beautifully down court and feeding great balls in to our shooters.
Katie McCartney played at Wing Defence, marking her player and making some excellent interceptions.
Charley Hickey played excellently in defence, getting some excellent rebounds and defending her partner excellently.
Brogan Davis provided some excellent passes and showed excellent defensive skills.
Overall the match was a huge success and we all felt very proud of our performance and result at the end of the game.
Sofia Franek- Year 10
YEAR 11
First Quarter: After the first quarter JOA girls were down by 2 goals. We all discussed that we needed to communicate more in order to be more successful.
Second Quarter: By the end of the second quarter our shooters were back on form. We were winning by a few goals, as Ciara Mullane and Amy O’Sullivan did a fantastic job defending at the other end.
Third Quarter: Becky McClaughlin upped her game and stuck to her player like glue. Bonnie was an excellent Goal Attack, creating excellent space and utilizing her players around her.
Forth Quarter: Georgia and Niamh continued to work well in the circle and defence was tight between Lucia, Ciara and Bonnie.
Our Final score was 20-14, well done girls!!!
Taylor O’Dwyer- Year 11
Cheerleading gets off to a ‘Flying Start!’
Girls from Years 7-9 started their 8 week long cheerleading programme at St. Joan of Arc this Monday. Two cheerleading coaches from Saracens Club are teaching the girls at JOA. A great start to the programme with cheer choreography, Pom-Poms and stunts. The 8 week programme will culminate in a cheerleading competition and opportunities for the girls to perform at the Saracens Rugby club match intervals. Additionally, we are hoping the girls will perform their finished piece in the annual JOA dance show in March 2014. Well done girls and keep on cheering!