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A team of pupils from Newcastle under Lyme Prep School are now ranked in the top 3 and 4 schools in the country after they competed in the English Schools Swimming Association National Primary School Finals.
On Saturday 14th June 2025 the team of Oscar Bouras, Rebecca Talathi, Rhys Whalley, Lyla Whalley, Victoria Talathi and Anya Khoo from Newcastle under Lyme Prep school travelled to Ponds forge, Sheffield to compete in the English Schools Swimming Association National Primary schools Finals.
The team qualified for the National Finals in March after coming 1st in the West Midland qualification round in both the 4x25m Freestyle and Medley relays in a time of 1 minute 04.62 seconds and 1minute 14.59 seconds respectively. This was a fantastic achievement and a testament to the hard work they had put in over the last 12 months since their last outing at English Schools Nationals in 2024.
The team arrived in Sheffield motivated and ready, with just the right amount of nerves and plenty of fire in their bellies. As 3rd fastest qualifiers they were in the first heat and knew they had to swim hard to guarantee a place in the A final and to draw a middle lane for the final.
They swam brilliantly to all hit their goal times set by their teacher to record a team Personal Best of 1 minute 00.30 seconds. The chance of a podium place looked promising if they could just hold their nerve and in the final they improved their time to finish in 1 minute dead. They were delighted to secure that 3rd place behind Latymer Prep (1st) and Ardingly college (2nd). This means that the pupils are now ranked in the top 3 and 4 schools respectively in the country for the Medium sized schools category in the 4x25m Freestyle Relay and 4th in the 4x25m Medley relay.
Mrs Wiseman, Swimming Teacher at the school said, “I knew that they were a very strong team and knew that we needed to push on further with our training to produce something special at the National Finals. In the months leading up to Nationals they continued to attend the before school squad session and were also invited to train alongside our Senior school squad session after school, in addition to this they also continued to attend club sessions with Newcastle Swimming club. They worked incredibly hard each week to increase speed and fine tune stroke technique, racing techniques and relay takeovers. The team have been an absolute pleasure to work with and have made us all so proud, their hard work and dedication really is a credit to them, they held themselves under pressure and delivered an excellent result for Newcastle under Lyme Prep School. I cannot wait to work with them again when they move up into the Senior school in September”.
Louis Bond: “The site of the camp was much larger than I had ever expected. Much of the camp was destroyed, but there were the cabin like structures at the front of the complex which were tiny in comparison to the number of people who were forced to stay in them. At the rear of the
Mount Pleasant, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire, ST5 1DB
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