Celebrating Y12's sporting success and the Shaper Profile

Congratulations to our Year 12 students nominated by their peers for demonstrating valuable character traits due to their determination to succeed in their chosen sport.

Rita Santos is a top-rated national and international Portuguese tennis player in both the U16 and U18 rankings. She is currently 730th in the world. She trains every day for 3 hours including 2 hours of court practice and 1 hour of physical training. Over the last few years, she has needed to be extremely focused both on and off the court in order to maintain her high match play standards and manage her schooling. When asked to consider our Shaper Profile she was able to identify how her dedication and commitment to tennis has helped her develop important characteristics.

Collaborative - clubs playing together, players supporting each other, doubles partnerships.
Communicator + Citizenship - while participating in the recent international tournament in Denmark Rita was talking in French to other players showing the benefits of learning languages.
Courage - tough matches and injury, being responsible, not thinking too much about pressure, especially during important points like the tie break. She discusses how it is crucial to focus on position and play and not on the score.

Rita’s highest achievements so far are winning category A and the semi-finals in international tournaments and the latest national championship.

Francisca Magalhães has been riding since she was 9 years old and has recently moved to Escola de equitação Ricardo Rebelo. She competes at a national and international level and in 2020 won the Junior Portugal Cup (age 15 - 18 years). To maintain her level she must train 3 times a week for 2 hours on Celina her horse and do gym training 3 times a week for 1-1.5 hours. It is crucial to have a special connection with her horse and to develop a relationship that allows the rider and horse to perform as one. Francisca has ridden with Celina (14 years old) for 1 year and a half. It is possible to tell if there is an initial connection but may take up to 2 years to know if there is a good enough bond. Francisca and Celine are working towards the next National Championship in which they came 4th this year.
Francisca has identified the following characteristics of the Shaper Profile as particularly important:

Compassion - the rider must trust and engage with their horse. Both must support each other and horse work together as one, not so much as a team but completely in harmony

Courage - when the jumps are very high and you wonder what if you will fall. The rider must have conviction so the horse also is calm and confident.

Chloe Hosford has had a huge amount of success in her chosen categories of athletics, where her talent, dedication and enjoyment continues to shine. Chloe represents Benfica in the 100m, 200m, the 100m hurdles and the relay. She has had some major recent achievements nationally within Portugal:
U18 
2019 1st in the 100m hurdles Portuguese Nationals which is Chloe’s top achievement
2020 fell in the final just before winning the 100m hurdles
2021 3rd in Nationals for 100m hurdles
U20
2021 4th in the National Finals in the 100m hurdles

Chloe has a strict and intensive training routine. She trains 6 times a week for 3.5 hours daily until her coach is satisfied that she has completed the planned activities. Her daily training includes 3 gym sessions plus running practice. Chloe's identifies strongly with the following attributes:

Courage - a huge amount of perseverance is required, sometimes feeling nervous can help otherwise you must push it away. She feels more nervous about school events as there is more pressure to perform in front of her friends. Her ambition is to qualify for the European Championships. She absolutely loves what she does.

Vicente Vegar plays centre for Cascais rugby first national division sub19 team. The season consists of 10 teams, playing a championship style league where each team will play twice against each other at home and away. His greatest achievement was winning the Portuguese National Cup. Vicente is extremely passionate and dedicated to his sport. His weekly training consists of 3 sessions which include 1 hour of physical and gym training, 1.5 hours of rugby training plus gameplay. He has democratically been elected Vice Captain for the last 3 years showing his leadership skills and dedication to the team. Vicente has identified some examples of when the elements of the Shaper Profile have been evident to him as a rugby player.

Courage - Rugby is a very physical game and you need to put yourself on the line for the team
Collaboration + Communication - Vicente prepares and delivers team speeches before each game and needs to be aware of individual players and the team when making motivational speeches. A special moment in Vicente’s history was 2 years ago when he was voted the most valuable player of the league. Before Covid interrupted play, Vicente was selected for the U15 national team.

Alisha Samrow has been a dedicated athlete since she can remember. She is a member of the Let’s Run Club and regularly competes in races in Cascais and Oeiras. Her training consists of 1.5 hours twice a week and then competitions at the weekends. Alisha feels that her best achievement was in 2020 when she participated in a 1.5 k cross country track and in the last 100m drew on every last bit of energy and determination to overtake her rival competitor and win the race. Alisha has identified how courage and compassion are her main attributes when training and competing in long-distance running.

Courage - not giving up when it gets hard and keep going, making yourself push to try harder
Compassion - thinking about oneself for balance and wellbeing

Seb Bowden has played rugby for 10 years as a flanker and now represents the sub 19 Cascais Rugby Club. He carries out 3 training sessions a week which includes 1 hour of the gym and one hour of rugby Sebastiao’s greatest achievement is winning the 7s National Championship at sub 14 level.

He has identified with the following Shaper Profile attributes:

Courage - he felt quite afraid to go into sub 19 and a new club as the level of play was higher and the training more demanding
Collaboration - as rugby is a team sport you are relying on each other and everyone is united together. As it is contact support you need to be there for each other.

Miguel Marques has been dancing for the last 6 years. He participates in contemporary dance, jazz, hip hop, ballet and modern. His favourite style is contemporary dance. Miguel trains at a competitive level for national and international competitions. Training is 2-3 hours every day and he has won numerous local and national competitions. His highest achievement is winning the solo Nationals in contemporary dance.

In terms of the St Julian’s Shaper Profile, Miguel identifies with Courage and Collaboration as when dancing, trust, organisation and performing under pressure are extremely important.

Jo Stedman
Head of Y12