This article draws on ethnographic work undertaken with 21 students and several members of staff at an elite girls’ school in New Zealand to investigate the relation between school culture, pedagogical practices and discourses of physical education and school sport. It explores what and who contours the participation of these young women in sport, both within and outside of the school gates. The article interrogates the values young women ascribe to sport and physical education in the context of their shared commitment to achieving academic success, and suggests that government policy agendas and imperatives around Physical Education and sport are not necessarily changing pedagogical practices. Rather, the school’s desire to turn out well-rounded, balanced and successful young women drives the school’s commitment to affording young women multiple opportunities and resources to participate in sport and recreation within the school gates.
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