England Hockey Award

On Saturday 1st July, representatives of GMS attended the prestigious England Hockey Award event in Leicester, to witness GMS’s PE teacher Lottie Porter win the Coach of the Year Award. This is an annual event where 12 awards are given in categories ranging from best player to best team.

Lottie was shortlisted for Coach of the Year for her work at GMS; she was nominated by parents, Mr Steve Goodright and Mr Keven Ford.

The category she was competing in was dominated by club coaches, yet Lottie won the Award outright: she is, officially, National Coach of the Year 2022/23.

Her win is truly deserved because she has worked relentlessly to develop hockey at Great Marlow School over her seven years in the PE Department. The sport of hockey was featured in the curriculum before her career began at GMS, but the school only had one team, which was an amalgamation of three year groups.

Today, Great Marlow School boasts teams in every year group and for male and female players respectively. In the junior years, there are A and B teams: in fact, the school is now blessed with upward of 200 players who regularly represent the school in local, district, county, regional and national competitions. Such is the success, that the Girls U18 Team, participated in the Indoor National Finals both last year and this year. The win of this year was when the U18 Team won the Tier 3 Hockey Outdoor Final, to great acclaim.

As well as securing outstanding levels of performance from students across the school, Lottie’s aim is to grow the game even more, to make it completely accessible to all our diverse range of students. She has a genuine passion for working with young people and especially towards the development of hockey.

It is without a doubt that she is an absolute credit to GMS and the game of hockey. Everyone in the school is delighted that she has been recognised  for her tireless efforts to improve provision and performance for students, and that her work has now been recognised at a national level.

Congratulations Miss Lottie Porter, we are incredibly proud of you.