Girls aim high as sport proves to be a vital part of life at Farlington

It feeds into the girls’ lives improving their social and personal skills as well as providing a great way to bring the wider school community together for competitive matches and sporting events.

With so many external pressures on girls, sport is an excellent way of building girls’ self-esteem teaching them that winning and losing has nothing to do with your worth as a person and that hard work, repetition and constant practice are keys to successful performance.

As a small school Farlington can nurture and develop the girls’ ability both within a team and individually.

Our PE staff have nurtured excellent links with local sporting organisations including Horsham Hockey Club, Rudgwick Netball Club, Blue Star Harriers, Slinfold Golf and Country Club, Horsham Hawks Basketball Club and Atlantis Swimming Club, so they are able to guide the girls into the best club for their own specific talents.

Though we are very proud of our high-achievers we recognise that it is essential for all girls to be included in sport. Farlington hosts hockey festivals so the girls have fun whilst improving their hockey in a relaxed, yet competitive, environment.

We run an annual Prep Sports Festival for Year 5’s from local schools which develops team-building skills and loyalty to teammates. It also enables our Year 10 girls, who run the event, to complete the final part of their Level 1 in Sports Leadership.

We have some great budding sports women at Farlington:

Sophie Kitson plays in the Sussex U13 Badminton Squad in addition to her flourishing tennis career. During the summer Sophie won the 12 and Under Girls Singles tennis at the Storrington Club Championships for the third year running as well as the U12’s Mixed Doubles.

Freya Millis is part of the Sussex Athletics U13 Winter Training Squad as well as participating at club level in athletics, swimming, hockey and netball.

This summer she broke the Prep School’s long-standing high-jump record and has since recorded a height of 1.46m! She was also part of Farlington’s Junior Squad which came fourth at the English Schools Cross Country Cup, first round, at Ardingly in October 2013.

Gabriella Eltham has been selected for the Sussex Netball Academy. She, too, is an all-round sportswoman and is involved with hockey, swimming and netball at club level.

She recently came fourth individually at Ardingly in the English Schools Cross Country. Gabriella also qualified for the IAPS (Independent Association of Prep Schools) 800m final last summer.

Caitlin MacGregor became the IAPS U11 National Trampolining Champion when she was under 10!

Amy Fitzpatrick is the IAPS U14 National 75m Hurdles Champion. She more recently came second in the Sussex Floor and Vault Championships (age 12-14). Amy also plays in all the school teams.

Eleanor Harvie, Year 11, fences with the Crawley Sword Club and won bronze in the Sussex Open Women’s Epee competition in October 2013 and has entered the top 100 women’s fencing rankings for the first time.

Dani Lozzi captained the South East U15 Girls Basketball team in September at the regional tournament in Nottingham. She is waiting to hear if she has been selected for the England Basketball U15 Girls Team.

At the National Schools Swimming Relay Championships, Farlington Juniors - Gabriella Eltham, Lilly Cherriman, Gemma Cumber and Kate Wilson - came third in the freestyle and second in the medley relay out of 22 schools. Gemma and Lilly also won silver medals as part of the medley relay team at the Sussex County Relay Gala in September 2013.

Sophie Pellow, Hemma Ahluwalia, Alexandra and Isabel Malzer have been selected to play hockey at Junior Academy level.

At Farlington, we educate for confidence and whether playing at school, regional or national level, sport builds confidence.

It teaches girls that competition is fun and this is something that will prove invaluable to them as they progress through life.