On Wednesday 5^th February, GBJS cheerleading team attended our first cheerleading competition. In the morning, we changed into our outfits in the library, then we did lots of practicing of our routine to make sure it was perfect!  We were all really nervous, but at the same time excited.  We got on the minibus to Notley High School and went to their gym area.

We all took part in a musical theatre workshop and learnt a dance from Hairspray, it was really fast and tricky but lots of fun.  Then we went to the sports hall to practice our routine and chant.  We had to shout really loud! The people there were really kind and helpful.

Next, we took part in a street dance workshop, it was easier than the musical theatre, much easier and lots of fun. After that, we had our delicious lunches, then it was time for the competition!

Soon after the key stage 1 performed, it was the lower key stage 2, then we took the floor and showed the judges who was boss! Our chant was really loud, and we didn’t make a mistake at all. We perfectly timed our cannons and showed the judges our most beautiful smiles.

Due to all of our hard work, we came 2^nd which is brilliant! The judges were very honest because White Court did deserve to win. There was only 1 point between us, so we were quite gutted, but still very proud! They commented on how neat and tidy our routine was and how we all looked like we loved performing – which we did!

By Holly, Jemma and Belle

On Monday 2nd of March, Great Bradfords Junior School took part in the annual Braintree School's Cross Country competition. The event was really well attended with 13 school competing. Great Bradfords Junior School put on a fantastic performance in each year group event. The children behaved perfectly, displaying all of the sporting values throughout the afternoon. 

There were many successes in the competition, including individual runners and year group teams. We look forward to the next round of the cross country competition. 

On Wednesday 29th January, some of our children from across the year groups in the school, were selected to take part in the second Soccability Festival. It took place at the Discovery Centre, with Braintree Town Football Club running the event. The children took part in a range of drills and skills, to help improve their techniques, they ended the tournament with a big match. The children thoroughly enjoyed the event, interacting well and making friends with a mixture of children from different age groups and from various schools.

Thank you to all the children that took part in the event. 

Braintree Schools Hockey Tournament!

On Wednesday 15^th January, Great Bradfords Junior School took part in the Braintree Schools Hockey Tournament. We arrived at the Braintree Hockey Club at approximately 9:15. There were about 12 teams taking part in the tournament, so it was quite busy. Our first opponent was St Giles, we were a little nervous as we had never played as a team before, however, we kept a clean sheet and drew the match 0-0, we couldn’t find the goal, despite the ball being in our possession for the majority of the game. We then had one match off, so went back to the changing area to warm up a bit. Our next match was against Chipping Hill – it was a good game and we drew it 0 – 0, again keeping a clean sheet. In our last match we played against St Michaels, we won that match 1-0, which was great! Harry scored the winning goal and we all celebrated. Unfortunately, we did not win our pool, however considering it was our first hockey tournament we thought we played really well, and it was a fun experience.

By Harry Wooder and Oliver Watts  

On Monday 13th January Great Bradfords Junior School took two teams to compete in a New Age Kurling competition at Ramsey Academy. The two teams played extremely well and were very successful. One of the teams won two of their matches, only losing one match. The other team won all three of their matches and got through to the semi final. In the semi final match it was very close, Great Bradfords were level with the opposition after three rounds, it was intense. There was then a deciding round, which luckily we won comfortably. We were then through to the final! In the final Great Bradfords won every single round of the match - we meant that we had won the tournament! The children were thrilled, I am very proud of how well they played and behaved throughout the tournament; all demonstrating the sporting values. Well done. 

On the 20^th of November 2019, a group of year 5’s and 6’s went to a dodgeball tournament, they were: Hannah, Oli, Summer, Bonnie, Ozan, Tyler, George, Jamie, Jemma and Kerrie. Overall, we played 9 games, but we only played 3 teams, this is because you play 3 two minutes games for each team.

The first team we played was Beckers Green team 1, unfortunately we lost the first one however, we drew the second one and won the last one. This meant we drew overall against them.

The next team we played was St Michaels. To our disappointment we lost two of the matches, in our last match we won because George had been hit by the ball, which meant he was out, but, luckily Oli caught the ball, which meant he was allowed back in the game. Then, out of nowhere, George pelted the ball at the last player on their team and it hit them! This meant we won the last round. Unfortunately, because we had lost two matches that meant that St Michaels had won the match against us.

The last match we played for the tournament was against Rivenhall. The first match we played out of three we lost because all our players got hit, which stopped the match and they won. The next one was a draw because we had the same amount of people as Rivenhall had left after the two minutes. The final match we won because we had hit more of their players out then they did, which meant we had more people at the end of that match. Unfortunately, we had lost one, drew one, and won one which meant we drew overall against them. Once all the rest of the schools had played their last matches we sat in our schools and we got told our places. To our disappointment, we came 4^th in our group, St Michaels came 3^rd, Rivenhall came 2^nd and Beckers Green came 1^ST. That meant that Beckers Green got in the semi-final along with three other schools.

By Oliver Watts and Hannah Wright.

On Wednesday 13th November, some of our children from across the year groups in the school, were selected to take part in a Soccability Festival. It took place at the Discovery Centre, with Braintree Town Football Club running the event. The children took part in a range of drills and skills, to help improve their techniques, they ended the tournament with a big match. The children thoroughly enjoyed the event, interacting well and making friends with a mixture children from different age groups and from various schools. Thank you to all the children that took part in the event. 

Boys 2^nd Round Football Tournament

On the 6^th November 2019, the GBJS boy’s football team were at Witham Football Club’s ground, f who kindly allowed us to use their football pitches for the tournament we were about to participate in.

We had previously won the Level 1 football tournament almost a month before.

We wanted to win to get through to the third round, but four other teams stood in our way. All of which wanted to win as well.

Our first match was against John Bunyan on pitch 2 - the rematch was on for us. The line-up to start was Riley in goal who came off for Tyler in the second half, Jack and Brayden at the back, Harry on the left, Jake on the right, Joe(C) in the middle and George upfront. Riley made a small error early on, so they went 1-0 up. Riley then went on to make some excellent saves. Harry then scored so that it was 1-1. At half time Riley came off for Tyler and Jake came off for Caleb. The final score ended being 1-1.

The next game was the same line up as the previous game. Game 2 was on pitch 1 with us playing Holy Family. We scored twice overall that game with Jake and Joe getting a goal each. The 2^nd game was our first win. We needed that, to keep up our spirits. Got in some practise. The next match was against Chipping Hill with the line-up of Tyler in goal who came off at half time, with Jack and Brayden at the back, Jake on the right, Harry on the left Joe(C) and George up front. Tyler let in a goal in the first half but then Joe(C) went down in their box. Penalty! The arguments began as to who should take it, but then the coaches said that George should take it, as he had been practising them in training. As George stepped up, he unfortunately missed the penalty, so that game we lost 1-0.

The final game was against Richard De Clare. We started with the same team as last time. We were against someone who used to go to our school named Peter. It was intense. Shots wreaked havoc in the goal mouth but no goals. Until… it happened. George and Brayden got injured. Caleb and Riley had to come on. Riley is a goalkeeper, so he was out of his natural habitat, being on the pitch. He played in defence and we kept a clean sheet. Then the final whistle.

We thought we had lost the tournament, yet we still had a chance. We stood in a line for the results; Captain followed by the keepers. In third place was… Holy Family. Good news. Then it happened. Joint second was… John Bunyan, Richard De Clare and… Great Bradfords Junior School – all the schools were equal on points and goal differences. Chipping Hill had won the tournament by 1 point. We were distraught. However, our teachers were very proud and was impressed that we got this far in total. We came joint second overall. However, you had to win to get through so sadly we didn’t get through. But we were proud of our achievements as our first game/tournament of the year. Hopefully we can continue this great form. Now it’s time for our thank you to the great referees from Braintree town Marcus and William, our fabulous pitch providers Witham Town Football Club, all the other teachers who allowed us to play against their school football team, but most importantly, our coach Mr Moss and manager Miss Shanley, along with our teachers who sorted out all the stuff behind the scenes and who allowed us to go and play against all the other schools again.

Match Report By -      Riley and Harry

16th October Girls Football Tournament.

In the morning we left for the girl’s football tournament. We were very excited, bur nervous at the same time. We brought to the tournament; Sadie, Catriona, Hannah, Holly.H , Holly, Bonnie, Amber, Megan, Lily-Mae. As our coaches we had Miss Shanley and Mr. Moss.

For our matches we played Cressing, Feering, Howbridge and last but not least Gosfield. For our captains we had: Hannah, Sadie, lily and Catriona. 

We won two matches ( Cressing: 1-0, Feering: 2-0 ) and drew 0-0 against Howbridge and Gosfield.

After all the matches had ended, we were filling up with anticipation to hear the results. Finally, we found out. We were undefeated, no goals were conceded but we came second in our group but only by goal difference and overall we came 3^rd throughout the tournament.

By Sadie, Hannah and Catriona.  

On Monday 14th October, some lucky children from our school were selected to take part in the Braintree Schools annual boccia tournament. 

The children were so excited to be taking part in the tournament and we took enough children to represent three teams. All three teams did fantastically well, demonstrating all of the core sporting values, these include; passion, teamwork, determination, respect, honesty, and self belief. The children thoroughly enjoyed the tournament and each team won a medal for their participation. 

Thomas commented, "I was really nervous at first, but once I got there and we got playing, I really enjoyed myself."

Braintree Schools Football Tournament, October 2019

On the 9^th October 2019, Great Bradfords boy’s football team went to the Braintree schools football tournament. When we arrived at Notley High School, we were an hour early, so we decided to play some warm-up games and take a few penalties and corners, meanwhile the 2 goalkeepers, Riley and Tyler, trained each other.

Miss Shanley called us round for a team talk about respect and then Mr Moss and Miss Shanley let us know that they had decided to change the captain every game to see who fits best and to give more people a go.

For the first game against John Ray A, we played on pitch four and the lineup was Tyler in goal, Jack and Brayden at the back, Harry(C) on the left, Jake on the right, Joe in the middle and to finish it off George up front. George scored one in the first half, which is when Riley came on, and 2 in the second half with Riley letting in 1 undeserved goal for them which gave us a 3-1 win. It was a good start to the tournament.

For our next game we moved onto pitch five. We felt quite confident with George this time as captain. The starting lineup against ST. Michal’s B was Riley to start this time with Jack and Brayden at the back, Caleb on the left, Lewis on the right, Joe in the middle again with George(C) up front continuing his great form with another 2 goals. At the final whistle, it was another victory for us.

The following match, against Beckers Green, was on pitch four with Joe having a turn as a captain and Riley in goal with Jack and Brayden at the back, Harry on the left and Jake on the right, Joe(C) in the middle with George up front. We started a bit sloppy, but still pulled away with a 2-0 win.

The fourth game was against Notley Green on pitch three with Jack as captain this time. This time Tyler started with Jack(C) and Brayden at the back, Harry on the left and Jake on the right, Joe in the middle and to finish it off, George up front. We ended that game with Harry scoring the only goal to make it 1-0.

The final game was to determine if we went through to the final of the best in Essex tournament. We were on pitch four and started with Riley starting in goal, Jack and Brayden(C) at the back, Harry on the left and Jake on the right with Joe in the middle and George up front. Harry put a goal away to seal the win and go through to the final with a 1-0 win.

All that was left now was the final. Heartbeats increased. We were against John Bunyan who had not conceded a goal in the tournament… yet. We were on pitch one with Tyler and Riley as the captain (depending on who was on at the time) and the starting lineup was Tyler(C) in goal, Jack and Brayden at the back, Harry on the left, Jake on the right, Joe in the middle and George up top. At halftime, Riley(C) came on for Tyler and Caleb swapped with Jake. It was seconds until the final whistle when Riley(C) pulled off an absolutely phenomenal save to save the match. It ended 0-0 and we came joint first.

Thank you Notley High for organizing all this and letting us use your field, thank you to the M.R.F.A referees and most of all, thank you to the people who organized for us to go, Miss Shanley and Mr Moss.

Report By Riley and Harry.

On Wednesday 8th October, some very lucky children from years 3 and 4, were selected to attend a new sporting event called Mi Bootcamp, which took place at Howbridge Junior School. Throughout the morning the children took part in several fun fitness activities on a carousel basis. The event was all about children 'having a go' and enjoying new challenges, and our GBJS children certainly all tried their hardest and 'had a go' at all of the challenges the faced! They were all super stars!  

On Monday 30th September, Great Bradfords Junior School were lucky enough to be joined by Sarah Smith, one of the football coaches at Wildcats Football club. Sarah set up three coaching sessions for year 5 in the afternoon and then stayed on after school to help run the girls football club alongside Mr Moss. The girls thoroughly enjoyed their training session and it has motivated and inspired them to keep practising and improving their skills. 

If there are any girls interested in joining a girls only football training session, Sarah is running a club after school on Friday evenings 6-7pm at Lyons Hall Primary School. For more information please contact her on: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.