Extra Curricular Sports Programme
Physical Education and Games play a major role within our school and extra-curricular sport is an area in which we pride ourselves. Our ethos is to provide a breadth of excellent sporting opportunities for as many students as possible to help them develop a life-long love of sport, regardless of the level they play at.
In school we have opportunities for students to enjoy sport at a social level right through to competitive regional and national competitions where we have seen plenty of success over many years. Countless students continue to play sport beyond their school years, some at university and many who carry on helping to swell the playing numbers at local clubs. Occasionally, some students go on to perform at the highest level within their chosen sport thanks in part to their experience here at WGSB.
Our main winter games are Rugby Union and Hockey, and in summer, the main sports are Cricket and Athletics. Rugby is played on Saturdays with some senior fixtures on Wednesday afternoons during enrichment, and Hockey is played midweek so that students can access both.
A typical Saturday sees 180+ boys involved playing rugby in 10-12 teams, ranging from the 1st XV, 2nd XV and U16s, through to U12Cs. Our fixtures, against a mixture of state and independent schools take us within Cheshire and onto Lancashire, Yorkshire, Shropshire and North Wales as well. The 7s season takes all age groups to festivals across the country.
During the week hockey takes centre stage with the equivalent number of students playing from the 1st and 2nd XI down to the Year 7 teams. Again, we travel within the Wirral and Cheshire as well as travelling to Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Staffordshire facing a range of state and fee-paying schools. Before Christmas we focus on the indoor game and then in the New Year we move outdoors.
In recent seasons our senior sides have won County and Regional honours with the rugby 1st XV reaching the National quarter finals and the hockey 1st XI finishing 3rd in the National Finals after defeating Eton in the 3rd/4th place play-off. Our U14s were Northwest Indoor Champions in 2023-24 beating Sedbergh School in the final.
Cricket is our main summer sport and, like hockey, is played midweek. Our 1st XI annually qualifies as area champions in the ECB National U17 competition and we enjoy plenty of fixtures during the summer season.
Full details of all our sports fixtures can be viewed at sport.wirralgrammarboys.com.
Basketball (years 7-13), Athletics (years 7-10) and Table Tennis (years 7-11) are 3 of our other most popular sports. We compete competitively in national competitions in these sports and clubs run weekly during their respective seasons which are very well attended.
We do not have football as part of our curriculum or extra-curricular programme and, instead, encourage students to play a range of different sports that are not offered elsewhere. This approach is very popular with students and our participation rates of those regularly taking part in school sport over 70%.
Inter-House sport provides additional competitive experiences for our students. These are played across all the sports we teach as part of our curriculum including rugby, basketball, badminton, hockey, volleyball, table tennis, handball, cross country running, cricket, rowing and athletics and take place throughout the year. There are opportunities for students of all levels of ability to represent their house in these sports.
The School also boasts a proud tradition in UK and overseas tours. The school has travelled to Canada, USA, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia as well as all over mainland Europe, representing Wirral Grammar School at Rugby, Hockey and Cricket.
In 2022 (post COVID) our senior rugby squad toured Holland and the Isle of Man and in 2025 70 senior rugby and hockey players will depart for South Africa.
Our U13s go on an annual cricket tour to Yorkshire while our 1st XI cricket team take part in a UK based Tour every Summer. Our U14 Rugby squad travel to South Wales at the end of their season. The senior 1st VII compete in the National Schools 7s at Rosslyn Park.
The School also runs an annual ski trip to Europe which is very popular and caters for all levels of skiing experience.
