Sports
“Our family is very grateful for your centred, balanced and insightful approach to our children’s school journey and we are proud to part of the local school community.” – parent/carer feedback
Introduction and Ethos
Sport and physical activity remain a key tenet of school life. We were proud to receive national accreditation from the Leadership Skills Foundation as a Centre of Excellence, as well as receiving the School Games Mark for the fourth year in a row in Summer 2025. We are one of only a very small number of schools with these honours, which reflect the school’s commitment to competition across school and in the community.
At Isleworth & Syon, sport is inclusive. This means that anyone can join a club or try out to be part of a team. We know that school sport allows students to become confident learners, successful young people and effective citizens. The PE staff also use the subject area to promote the learning of ‘skills for life’, such as communication and leadership skills, working in a team and learning to deal with success and failure.
You can find more information about the curriculum in the subject pages.
Beyond the Classroom
The PE team run a full extra-curricular programme throughout the school year. All major sports are represented, while other sports like volleyball and table tennis are extremely popular. The department also runs a cycling club and is responsible for the Duke of Edinburgh’s
Award – where we are one of only a handful of local schools running all three levels.
Year 9 and Year 12 students can take a formal Sports Leader qualification. This leads to all kinds of exciting opportunities like running primary school sports event with our partners at Sport Impact or meeting famous athletes like Sir Mo Farah or Tanni-Grey Thompson. We are proud to run regular inter-form and inter-house tournaments, including our June Track & Field Championships at the Osterley track across the road from the school.
This comes through with the Sports Leader qualifications (see below), as well as a full programme of sports teams and our successful inter-form and inter-house tournaments
Read more on the Extra-Curricular Activities page and the subject pages.
Rewards
Across sports, students have the change to win various rewards throughout the school year. For examples, students can:
- Earn house points in lessons for “above and beyond” effort
- Receive ‘Most Valuable Performer’ and ‘Clubman’ awards at end-of-term assemblies
- Receive sporting participation awards at the end-of-year celebration events
- Be nominated for subject-specific cups and trophies at our annual Junior Awards (Year 9) and Senior Awards (Years 11-13) events
- Receive specialist Sport ‘colours flashes’ and ties, to be worn with pride for a sustained contribution.
Success Stories
In school, we are proud to support and celebrate our elite sports performers. On top of our regular excellent performance at county and regional level, we have a number of current students who have reached ‘elite’ level. They seek to emulate the example of former student Reece James, current captain of Chelsea Football Club.
Our current students at ‘elite’ level include:
- Tiam Abazari, taekwon’do – represented the UK in international competition
- Ollie Harriss, football - part of the Brentford FC Under-13 team
- Dan Littlefair, hockey – competed at national level
- Nasir Niazi, football – represented Afghanistan in international tournament
- Phoenix Offiah, football – signed to the Tottenham Hotspur FC academy
- Freddie Summerhayes, gymnastics – international competitor
Studying A level PE or the vocational sport course has led to great success for recent Year 13s. Some destinations include:
- Oxford Brookes University – physiotherapy
- St Mary’s University, Twickenham – sports performance analysis and talent identification
- University Campus of Football Business, Wembley – football coaching & talent development
- University of Cambridge – psychology & behavioural sciences
- University of Chichester – sport and outdoor education
- University of Portsmouth – sport & exercise science
- University of Reading – accounting & management
