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Hello everybody and welcome to the February edition of the Rector’s Blog.

I hope you are all doing well, and this month we will be talking about Sports at The English School.

We have a thriving sports department at TES, where students, both boys and girls, across a variety of age groups and abilities, stay after school for training with highly qualified and experienced coaches, participating in matches with other schools, in Bogota and beyond. We work closely with the organisations of UNCOLI – The union of international schools in Colombia and AACBI – The Andean Association of International Baccalaureate Schools.

We offer a wide variety of sports including football, basketball, athletics, volleyball, table tennis, gymnastics and chess, and this really represents the wide diversity of talents and abilities our students have, and for us as a school, being mindful of the unique strengths and interests of each student.

Our sports teams are linked profoundly to our strategic pillars of a comprehensive culture of excellence through academic excellence and promoting leadership in our students.

Also, in terms of The English Way, we promote a sense of identity and community, reflected in the fact that this year we have over 400 students representing our teams, wearing our official TES sports uniform, which helps create a sense of togetherness and unity.

The English Way is also demonstrated through prioritising the physical and psychological wellbeing of our students, through regular exercise and the opportunity to collaborate, learn new skills and improve, developing a balance between academic studies and focusing on personal passions and hobbies.

I would like to highlight some of the fantastic achievements from our sports teams so far this academic year, from a variety of age groups across the school included in the Copa AACBI, held in December of last year, and beyond…

In volleyball we have played 5 semifinals out of the 6 UNCOLI and AACBI tournaments we have participated in, with an excellent result of 2 first place, 2 runners-up and 1 third place position.

In football we’ve been the champions in the Elizabeth Masson cup and runners-up in the Gimnasio Campestre cup.

In Athletics we are the UNCOLI champions in girls’ sprinting and in chess we are the UNCOLI Champions. 

Coming up in the future, we are very excited about some of the national and international events we will be participating in. In February we’ll be sending a sports delegation to Cali and in March we’ll be sending a sports team to Barranquilla.

We will also host the Copa AACBI National Children event, which we’ll be hosting from the 28th to 30th of April here at TES.

Finally, we’ll also be competing at the international level with volleyball, in the world’s largest school volleyball tournament in the city of Orlando in USA, in the month of June.

Additionally, we have very active parent football teams at TES and I would encourage any parents who would likely be interested in playing for these teams and build friendships and contacts, to contact their representative member of the Consejo de Padres who can help organise your involvement in these teams.

We also held a weekend alumni football tournament, held at TES which culminated in December of last year and had participation from many alumni who have attended TES over the years. There was a very high level of quality in this tournament, and most of all, it was thoroughly enjoyed by all and really helped us build a sense of community and belonging at the school. This alumni project is something we are continuing to promote and develop and please stay tuned for future updates about how our community, both past and present, can get involved.

We are working to continue developing and improving our sports teams, with the aim of increasing participation for all ranges of abilities and all ages, and promoting excellence for our school so the sports teams can flourish at TES with honour and pride. This will allow students to flourish, grow in confidence and enjoy all the psychological and physical benefits that sports participation can bring.

If you have any questions or would like more information about Sports in TES, please contact our Head of Sports, Tomas Tovar, and he will be happy to let you know how you can become involved and participate.

Many thanks for your attention, please continue to take care, stay safe, follow all the biosecurity protocols for COVID-19 and I look forward to seeing you all next time for the March’s edition of Rector’s Blog.

See you soon.

Adam Bennett
Head of School and Rector – The English School