EIGHT Haygrove School students will be heading to the National Trampolining Finals later this year, after winning medals at the recent Southern Zonal Schools competition.

Jenny Lang came home with the top trophy from the Junior Girls Novice individual category, and the Junior team - which included Lang alongside Jasmine Porcas, Millie Parker-Stevenson and Ruby Kearle, all from school years 7 and 8 - gave an excellent team performance to claim second place.

The Year 9/10 Girls Novice individual category was won by Tegan Smith, and fellow Year 9 student Amelia Williams followed her in the rankings by coming in second spot.

The Year 9/10 A Team, which involved both girls and team-mates Ellie Coleman and Ellie Cooper, performed a brilliant set and were delighted to be ranked top in their category to bring home the coveted first place trophy as well.

All the girls will now represent Haygrove School at the National Schools Championships, which are being held at the end of March.

A further 10 Haygrove students took part in the competition, but narrowly missed out on medals and therefore qualification for nationals.

Haygrove trampolining coach, Mr Den Gibbs, said: “It is always a pleasure to take a squad to the Southern finals.

"For many of the girls this was their first high-level competition and they all dealt with competing very well.”

Haygrove School's cricketers, meanwhile, were joined by Somerset women's captain Sophie Luff for a day of girls-only cricket training and she was delighted to see how enthusiastic the Haygrove girls were about the sport.

With drills and games that allowed the girls to test their batting and bowling skills, Luff was able to impart top tips and wisdom about the game from her highly successful career playing for Somerset, Western Storm - with whom she won two Kia Super League titles - and now with Welsh Fire, who Luff will play for in The Hundred this summer.

Luff, who hails from Lympsham and is the women’s and girls performance head coach at the Somerset Cricket Board as well as a community coach delivering cricket in schools and clubs said: “I spend a lot of time working with young women, encouraging them to consider playing cricket.

"The Haygrove students were great to work with, fully engaged and keen to get involved.

"Everyone seemed to really enjoy the training sessions.”

Luff’s visit followed that of ex-Haygrove student and fellow Somerset women's player Tilly Bond, who recently paid her old school a visit to spend time working with students on their cricket skills.