Netball
Head of Netball: Mrs Hannah Marchant
Netball is thriving at Bancroft鈥檚 school with training and matches being played regularly throughout the autumn and spring terms. Bancroft鈥檚 has an excellent reputation for netball within Essex Met County, the region and also at national level with many of our pupils excelling in the county and regional netball academy pathways. Our aim is to provide the opportunity for all to participate in netball, in an enjoyable environment whilst pursuing excellence at a high level.
We have a very strong fixture card against some of the best netball schools in the area and provide competition for a wide range of our pupils. Fixtures are played during the week and on Saturdays where each age group is able to have an A, B, C team, with D and E teams also in the U12 and U13 age groups. Training is held weekly for all age groups in the Spring Term and our National Squad begins training in the autumn term; there is strong expertise in the coaching staff with a coach provided for each team.
The Senior School enters local, regional and national outdoor competitions for the girls at every age group. We also enter county and national knockout cup competitions. Most recently, in 2022, the U19s and U14s 2022/23 reached the Regional Finals of the National Schools鈥 Tournament representing Essex Met. We have aspirations of progressing much further in national rounds. We also enter into the ISCN (Independent Schools’ Netball Competition) playing against a variety of schools with some very competitive netball, which gives all our athletes the opportunity to play a high standard of netball. Finally, each year group also takes part in an inter-house competition at the end of the Spring Term.
We have access to one outdoor and one indoor court on-site and seven netball courts at our offsite location, West Grove, not far from school.
Recent highlights include:
U14/U19 Regional Finalists: Every year from 2012 to 2022
U16 Regional Finalists: Every year from 2012 to 2022
U13 Essex Cup quarter 聽finalists
Academy
The Academy allows our best players, chosen through additional trials, invited to train all year round. Bancroft’s has many pupils representing local clubs and playing in local leagues. Alongside this we have many students playing in local Super League Franchises, including London Pulse and Saracens Mavericks.
Tours
The girls also get to experience overseas tours, with our most recent trips visiting Barbados in 2019, Singapore and Malaysia in the summer of 2016 and South Africa in 2013.聽 In addition, the U12s have travelled to Bath and Manchester for 鈥渕ini tours鈥.