The Physical Education Department in Friends’ School is staffed by four full-time and four part-time members of staff.
Head of Department is Ivor Monaghan with Lesley Rodgers in charge of Girls’ PE and Games. They are assisted by Nina Thompson and Stephen Robinson
On site facilities include three rugby pitches, three all weather hockey pitches, a four hundred metre athletics track with associated throwing and jumping areas, a gymnasium, swimming pool and play shed, five tennis courts and outdoor netball area as well as a state of the art sportshall and fitness suite. All pupils on senior hockey teams have access to artificial playing surfaces.
The department was awarded the Sportsmark in 1997 and the Goldmark in 1999. All pupils in the school participate in Physical Education classes. Pupils in Year 8 have four periods per week, pupils in Years 9-12 have three periods per week and pupils in Years 13 and 14 have at least two periods per week. All pupils in Key Stages 3 and 4 follow the programmes of study as laid down for the Northern Ireland Curriculum.
Recently the subject has become an option for pupils who wish to study it in Key Stage 4 and at AS level in Year 13. The GCSE group follows the CCEA specification for PE and the AS group follows the Edexcel specifications. Pupils participating in examination classes would be expected to have an active and on-going involvement with Friends’ School based extra-curricular sporting activities.
The focus of all physical education classes is on the essentially practical nature of the subject. The department leads in the provision of a wide ranging number of extra - curricular sporting activities with daily after school practices for rugby, boys’ and girls’ hockey, netball, badminton, athletics and cricket.
Saturday morning fixtures are an essential feature of the extra - curricular programme. Teams are also entered in cross - country, swimming, show jumping, ski-ing and golf competitions.
Sports Events
The following activities are offered on a curricular/extra-curricular basis to pupils in school :-
Aerobics, athletics, badminton, basketball, cricket, golf, gymnastics, girls’ rugby, national dance, hockey, indoor soccer, netball, rounders, rugby, show jumping, skiing, squash, swimming, tennis, weight training.
