Sport
Beyond the Classroom

These girls can and, here at Roedean, they do.
Kate Wakeling
Director of Sport
The Lawrence sisters (our founders) placed the sports pitches at the front of the school so that the world could see women playing sports. So we’ve always had a strong heritage: from hosting the Lacrosse World Cup against the USA in 1951 to being the school with the most netball courts in Sussex today.
“The record of achievement in a range of sports is outstanding, and pupils say they enjoy the opportunity for participation in myriad school fixtures, whatever their level of competence.”
— ISI 2021 —
Development Program
The development program is pupil-centered with pupils taking part in a rotation of activities in single PE including, strength and conditioning, gymnastics, tennis, athletics and swimming. Double PE lessons follow the major sports route, with Hockey in the Autumn Term, Netball in the Spring and Cricket in the Summer. Games offers the opportunity for weekly fixtures during Year 7 and 8 and a variety of choices from Year 10 onwards. The co-curricular program is peppered with squad practices and 21 different activities, including karate, fencing, horse-riding, golf, tennis, yoga and gymnastics. Pupils leave with the knowledge and understanding that taking part in physical activity is important for their mental, social and physical health, as well as leaving with the skills to be able to put this into practice.
Competitive Sport
Roedean has grown to become competitive and successful in sports. We compete in tournaments across 14 different sports – that’s approximately 600 fixtures a year – and our results are outstanding. This can be seen in School, where we have reached our aims in every single year group for specific sports, and our success can also be measured by our Old Roedeanians, who have used the skills and behaviours learned on the pitch to support them in their chosen careers after Roedean. Skills such as time management, self-awareness, team-work, confidence, motivation, goal setting and self-discipline have helped our girls navigate university, jobs and adversity when things haven’t gone to plan.
Sport in the Community
Community-led events that bring the school together are at the very heart of the department, such as Race for Life, parents’ and daughters’ tennis, family rounders, staff-versus-student netball and hockey fixtures, Old Roedeanian Sea-Swimming, and House netball and hockey matches. They echo the department’s belief that we are a pupil-centred school with a pupil-centred Sport department who believes in your daughter’s journey, whatever that may be.
Space to be…
“Sports. In a word: covered! An all-weather pitch was recently added to Roedean’s collection of floodlit courts which stand below the main buildings on the hillside overlooking the sea.”
— Muddy Stilettos —