On Saturday 23rd June, the school’s swimming pool is being officially opened. See below for more details, and keep an eye on this blog for more information as it becomes available.
May 8, 2012
Tuesday 8th May – The Swimming Pool Re-Opens!
After a long wait, the swimming pool at BWJS opened again today, and Year Six took took to the waters for their first session.
The pool will have its public grand re-opening soon. In the meantime, here are some pictures to illustrate the work which has been done.
July 27, 2011
Wednesday 27th July 2011 – Marathon Swim
The marathon swim is a final day tradition stretching back to 1981. Each year, the children in Year Six compete for a slot on the team. The fastest three boys and the fastest three girls then spend an hour relaying lengths of the pool as quickly as they can. The current record of 225 was set in 2003, and it is an enormous challenge to get anywhere close to this result.
This year’s team swam fantastically, achieving a result of 216 – just 9 short of the record. Even more impressively, there result was only one length behind the second place result of 217, meaning that this years team have become the joint third fastest team ever to compete. A fantastic achievement for Emily, Janina, Lizzie, Max, Finn and Archie – and a huge challenge to the year group who will follow them!
July 18, 2011
Monday 18th July 2011 – Swimming Pool Refurbishment
At last we have been told by Hampshire County Council that the refurbishment of our swimming pool will commence during the summer holidays. The first project will be to protect the surrounding access area from damage by heavy machinery.
The swimming pool will therefore close at the end of term; the last BWCS (Bishops Waltham Community Swimming) sessions for children will be on Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd July and for adults the last sessions will be on Tuesday evening, 26th July from 7 – 9pm.
We thank you for your loyalty during all the delays we have experienced to the start of this project and hope that you will return to swim in our new, refurbished pool once it re-opens again in the Spring.
Monday 18th July 2011 – A Message From Mrs Cooper
To all the members of my Upper School Swim Squad and their parents.
I was completely overwhelmed in assembly at school last Friday when members of the upper school swim squad presented me with gardening vouchers and a lovely thank you card. Thank you all so much, I have always loved gardening and so I will have great pleasure in buying something special to remember the lovely times I have had with my ‘Squad 2011′. They have all been such a delight for me to teach and watch how they have progressed and gained so much in confidence over the years that I feel a bit of a fraud in accepting such a lovely gift! Thank you all for your support and generosity.
June 9, 2011
Thursday 9th June 2011 – Hampshire Schools Biathlon
Pentathlon GB hosted the Hampshire Schools Biathlon Relays at The Hart Leisure Centre in Fleet at the end of May which was certainly an event not to be missed in the Bishop’s Waltham Junior sporting calendar. Biathlon Relay is a two discipline event where four team members swim a 4 x 25m freestyle relay and then run a 4 x 400m relay. Nineteen schools from all over Hampshire entered teams from Year 5 and Year 6 and the competition was tough…every team member had to have exceptional ability and show support for each other in both events.
As always, our teams showed great strength, determination and technique and put in superb performances to challenge the best of the Hampshire schools teams. Our year 5 team of Natasha, Abby, Tim and Isabel was placed 5th overall in their age group and our year 6 team of George, Archie, Emily and Lizzie was placed 4th overall in their event. Both teams received medals for being placed in the top six schools in the County.
Well done to all our team members – it was a challenging event and as always, you rose up and met that challenge!
(Report by Mrs Cooper)
May 17, 2011
Tuesday 17th May 2011 – Swimming Success
Our Medley and Freestyle swimming teams were out in force on Sunday 8th May when they represented Hampshire against Dorset and Sussex in the southern region finals of the English Primary Schools Championships. The standard of swimming was awesome from all the schools taking part in this high level of competition and so there was going to be no easy route through the heats to get to a final. The boys’ medley team had a bit of bad luck when a judge spotted something wrong with a take over but the boys’ freestyle team took a very credible 9th place. The girls’ freestyle and medley teams both swam in qualifying times for a place in their finals where eight schools battled for the opportunity to reach the National Finals in Sheffield. With a 7th place in the freestyle and an incredible 4th place in the medley, just missing out on a medal by one second, we had once again kept Bishop’s Waltham on the map of well known swimming schools in the South of England. Well done to all our teams, you were great ambassadors for Hampshire and our school. Thank you too for all the support we had from parents and families on the hot and noisy spectators’ gallery.
March 15, 2011
Tuesday 15th March 2011 – Hampshire Primary School’s Swimming Gala
Bishop’s Waltham Junior School was represented by two boys’ teams and two girls’ teams at the Hampshire Gala held at The Quays Swimming Centre in Southampton on Friday 11th March. This was the first qualifying round of the English Primary Schools National Championships with the final being in Sheffield in June. The teams were selected from Y6 and Y5 children who train at swim squad every Wednesday morning. Competition for a place in the teams was very strong and a lot of hard work and training was put into their preparation by the team members.
As always, it was a very nerve wracking event with eagle-eyed judges watching for false starts and take-overs and the electronic score board flashing up the race times to a hundredth of a second! Eighteen State and Private schools from all over Hampshire were in the same races as ourselves but swimming in three separate heats so putting in the fastest time possible and not just winning our heat was the key to success.
Our swimmers were awesome and an absolute credit to our school. They swam with great style and discipline even though their nerves were jangling and the adrenalin was pumping with the excitement of the occasion. They all put in exceptional performances against many well known swimming schools in Hampshire to get the following results;
Boys Medley A team = 5th place
Boys Medley B team = 6th place
Girls Medley A team = 1st place winning a Gold medal
Girls Medley B team = 8th place
Boys Freestyle A team = 5th place
Boys Freestyle B team = 11th place
Girls Freestyle A team = 4th place – just missed a Bronze medal
Girls Freestyle B team = 9th place
We now have to wait to find out which of our teams will be invited to swim in the next round of the Championships on Sunday May 8th at The Quays where they will represent Hampshire against schools from Dorset and Sussex. The Girls Medley A team, because of their 1st place, will go through automatically and we have a good chance with other teams too so team members please keep the date free! I’ll keep everyone informed as soon as we know.
Thanks must go to Lynne Bate, Mrs Serridge and Mr Sanderson for their help on poolside and to all the parents who provided transport and fantastic support from the spectator gallery.
Teams members;
Lizzie, Emily, Florrie, Janina, Maria, Aimee, Abbie, Isabel, Natasha.
Archie, Kieran, Finn, Max, Luke, Rob, Jamie, Tim, Jake.
November 12, 2010
Thursday 11th November 2010 – Recycle For The Swimming Pool
Dear Parents
Please help us to boost our fundraising for our swimming pool by recycling your old mobile phones, inkjet cartridges and laser/toner cartridges. We will receive 50% of the recycling value for any mobile phones, £1 for each original empty inkjet cartridge or up to £5 per empty laser/toner cartridge donated kindly by you, friends, family or colleagues. Please send small items direct to ‘Recycle for Charity’ in the Freepost envelope which has been given to your child or put them in the recycling box in reception at school.
Also, remember to use your community card at the Co-op store in Bishop’s Waltham. The amount raised so far is just over £5000 towards the £15,000 they are hoping to raise. The more you show the card each time you make a purchase, the more we make towards the pool. If you do not have a card, just ask for one at the counter – it costs you nothing!
(Message from Mrs Cooper)
