Top sporty secondary schools for 2022

Oh and that school is hilariously on this list too 😂

Yes I remember this when we were looking at schools for DS. Our closest grammar had compulsory rugby on a Saturday morning. When I asked if there could be an exception as DS played county football that day I was met with an arrogance that was breathtaking. You come to our school, you accept that and give up your talent.

Needless to say he didn’t go there!

I remember my parents getting into disagreement with the school over compulsory Saturday sports (just once or twice a term). The issue was my brother was a talented musician who attended music school on a Saturday morning. While sport is good... the music school was more beneficial for him.

Wanting to play sport on a Saturday is good. Forcing children to give up other beneficial activities is not on.

@grrrrrrreat @deeprealisation , so true! If getting all kids to be healthy maybe more fun dance classes or gym sessions which can carry into adulthood.

@tachetastic all those grassroots sports would soon become 30% more expensive if volunteer coaches / club officials etc got paid. Clubs would become employers too. They are cheap as no profit is made

@grrrrrrreat and they miss the face that exercise / dance / sport / drama etc helps mental health and healthy lifestyle habits

Near us, the grammar schools do take part in Saturday as well as mid week fixtures. But I think the real difference (from talking to friends with kids at the grammars) is the depth of participation. At the grammars, they can find the resource to run fixtures for the A and perhaps B teams, but that's it. At the local independents, all the kids take part in hours of weekly sport plus at least occasional matches.

I agree with others that a lot of families in state schools will use clubs to supplement school sport. But there are issues with this. First, the issues that others have mentioned - that you need the time, commitment and tansporr to be able to facilitate that as a family. But the other issue is that less sporty kids are not going to want to give up their Saturday to go and play football. The point about regular, compulsory sport in schools is that everyone does it, which is important from a health and educational balance point of view. But the focus of the government's education funding and inspection is all on exams, safeguarding and mental health, not on wider provision. There simply isn't enough focus on making sure state schools have the resource to provide sport, music, drama etc in schools, particularly secondary.

Either people just aren’t reading the thread or there is some next level cognitive dissonance going on.

“Easy to get DC coaching out of school”.

How does that work then if you work FT, have two or more kids, don’t live near the training or match grounds, or the money for gear and subs?

As mentioned before, DC played academy football for a few years. He was able to do this because I worked PT and have a car so could drive him after school. Younger sibling was dragged along sometimes and other times got another parent to take her swimming. So we weren’t hanging around for hours, DH would collect DS on way home from work and get train home with him.

This relied on us having enough money for:
me to work part time
fuel and train fares
a reliable car to get him there
a reliable train service near our house
activity for sibling and friends to help with this

The funniest thing is that he then went to one of the state grammar schools on your list who prioritise rugby so heavily over football that he played none the first few years at school. Because they didn’t have the staff or facilities to focus on more than one sport a season.

Very few highly competitive teams would be ignoring good players in favour of less good players. If they do this all the time, how do they win things? My experience has always been the best players are picked repeatedly and lesser good players miss out repeatedly or play in second teams or third teams.

Easy to get any DC sports coaching out of school. Loads of local cricket, football and hockey training. Always looking for new members.

Probably invite state schools in. I'm north west and I literally know no state school that runs fixtures as weekends as no staff to cover . Not in their contracts

They pr

They pr

@tachetastic our teachers would happily do it. They have told me. We have loads pitches.
But not enough of them to cover.
The end

DS is at a London independent school. They play around half of their Saturday Rugby and Football matches against State Schools so it can be done.

🙌 agreed

@tachetastic
Money. Funding. Gov policy.
Most state high schools have 30 min for lunch as no staff to supervise playgrounds longer never mind run lunch sports clubs.
A few PE teachers have the try cover after school clubs plus fixtures and literally can't do both.
If our state comp had 8 female PE teachers not 4 and 8 male ones not 4 then the number of clubs and fixtures would double.
But no money

OMG this thread beggars belief 😂😂😂

My children's school is a standard comprehensive school and is in the top 100. All the sports open to everyone.

It is well known that the local Private school does scout around the nearby Primary schools looking for promising sports people to invite for bursary applications in Yr5/6... and again in Yr8/9.

The difference between facilities for sport is quite stark.. but that is what the parents ate paying for really. Facilities and opportunities.

“It is sad that non-selective state schools are not more highly represented, but how could that be fixed? Any ideas?”

Funding. Money. Cash.

Rubbing one’s thighs at league tables of sporting privilege is grotesque - it’s just back slapping the advantaged.