A commitment to sport

Double Olympian Calum Giles believes the excellent new hockey surface installed at Worth during the summer highlights the commitment the School shows to providing the best sports facilities we can for students.

The previous hockey pitch has been replaced with a Lano Sports S-Tec Integration Experience surface which is an International Hockey Federation (FIH)-certified Category 3 multi-sport turf system engineered for hockey and general athletic play with high surface stability.

It is a sand dressed synthetic turf and the key features are that it meets official international standards for multi-sport field performance and testing, and that it uses a specialised sand infill to give extra stability and support fast-paced athletic action. New branded goals have also been purchased.

Head of Hockey Mr Giles said: “It is certainly a very good surface. We have gone for the higher end of surfaces. That is due to the commitment to improve the hockey facilities at the School and a bigger project to improve sports facilities at the School.

“In the three years I have been here, the School has invested in new floodlights, widening the path down to the Astro, 50% of the parking has been re-done and we have improved the fencing to protect spectators. We are proving that we are invested in sport, particularly the hockey in the School.

“The next phase of development will hopefully include two more goals and improving the fencing behind the goals.”

Hockey is developing at a past face at Worth under Mr Giles, who represented Great Britain at the 1996 and 2000 Olympics, winning 143 caps for his country and scoring 110 international goals.

During the 2025-26 academic year, our senior girls reached the National Plate semi-finals for the first time, the senior boys got through to the National Plate quarter-finals for the first time, the U15A girls went the furthest they have ever been in the ISHE Plate and our U13 girls won our own tournament.

Mr Giles is a hugely experienced hockey coach who also runs the popular Stickwise holiday camps and leads Hawks Hockey Club which is based at Worth and means boarders can play club hockey without leaving the campus.

He added: “The strongest thing this does is that it tells the children that hockey is valued here and the School has invested in hockey for them, and that we see it as a sport we want to push going forwards. Even more importantly with the amount of schools that come to play hockey here and the amount of children that play at Hawks – there are some days where there 500 or 600 visiting children – it promotes the School’s investment and commitment to sports.”

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