Finding a sporty school for our family.

[TheKentFamily]

Hello!

Can anyone please help us, we’re looking to put our Niece and Nephew in to a private/independent school that specialises in sports. Unfortunately, we have not been able to get a response from lots of schools in London. They are 6 and 4 and are quite sporty. Can anyone direct me to any specific schools in London but more importantly, direct contact information e.g. email address of any: Head of Sports, Sports Coordinators, ExtraCurricular Coordinators.

Thanks so much x

Talkeducation.com are good for this sort of thing.

Just to flag to you, the top (and popular) London are very oversubscribed and operate very long waiting lists. Just as an example, I called up several when my daughter was 3 months old to be told that I’d need to be added to the waiting list. People put their names down at conception - baby x,y,z. It might be why they’re not replying to you. Because you’re 6 and 4 years too late. I’m sure you’ll find somewhere though. It’s just not likely to be the top schools

Bit of a tangent but (sports parent here) I don’t think school is the key thing for sport/athletic development at primary age. Even a prep with a good sporting programme will probably only focus on three sports (one per term) and maybe some clubs at lunch/afterschool.
Don’t forget holidays are so long there’s a long time they won’t be doing those sports in school anyway.
It’s well established now that the single best thing you can do to develop sporting potential at a v young age is exposure to lots and lots of different sports, and absolutely not not to specialise.
That means it’s really family driven at that age, and about clubs etc that parents take them to.
My super unscientific (but absolutely worked for us) approach would be to get all the key skills covered - swimming, riding a bike etc
Maybe Junior Park run if they are keen?
Then some balance/co-ordination based activities - gymnastics, trampolining, ballet etc
Some ball sports/team sports like football, Rugby Tots etc (tag rugby is awesome pre contact, loads of mud and games), maybe hockey or tennis if you have access to the easily.
And if you have sporty active kids it’s great to get them to pick up skills that are it’s harder when you get older - skiing, horse riding, skateboarding etc
In my experience it’s particularly good to do outdoor sports that require a bit of toughness, willingness to get cold and muddy etc. my DD had never played rugby but was chosen for her (state) primary team because she was sporty and happy to get absolutely soaked! She went on to play for quite a few years.
when they transitioned to prep at the top
if KS2 they were able to very quickly pick up sports they’d never played before.

You school sounds AWESOME! Is it huge?

That's what I thought too @GoingOverToTheDarkSide Our state comp does sport once a week. That's it.
I came to recommend Prestige Football Schools if they're footballers. I was very impressed with their knowledge.

Whereabouts in London are you based?

At those ages just find an all around prep school which is easy to reach, all schools should offer a balance until 11 at least

We have sporty kids. In London you'd need to check their access to sports fields and hall. And how often do they have fixtures? How many teams do they have? If it's only an A team it might not be very strong / not enough children. What sports do the schools offer? swimming? gymnastics? hockey?cricket? What sports are your kids interested in?
Our 12 year old was identified as sporty at about age 6 so you should be able to see. But it's important to try lots of sports.. at 12 he is still running, playing cricket, tennis, rugby, hockey and horse riding...

just throwing this one out there but Eaton House the Manor Boys and Girls Clapham, seem to have lots of sport. easy access to a good field, and the destination schools (both girls and boys) seem to have lots of sport scholars.

Ds wasn't at all sporty and had the choice of 2 independent schools for year 7. He chose the sporty all boys one and it was the making of him. He is graduating this year and at university he led the sports for all initiative to encourage students to be active. His school believed there was a sport for everyone and even in 6th form sports were a big thing. They did have to go to school on Saturdays. In year 7 there were Rugby teams from A to F. He was at Bedford.

Just a thought, but are you ( or the parents) planning to relocate near the school, or are you looking for a boarding school? If you/parents are not planning to relocate, surely you’d choose the best school within a few miles of your home? There’s no point choosing ‘the best school’ if it takes an hour and a half to get there each day, which for young children is too much.

The children are so young! I would plan to tour the nearest large prep schools with places, because little kids won’t manage a long journey across London every day and also a lot of schools may already be full in their year. Ask about the sports offerings when you tour and look at the destination schools for sports scholarships but really don’t overthink it. They may not still be sporty as teens, if they are then they may excel at a sport not played at school and any major success relies on doing it outside of school since school will rotate the sports they do and the holidays are also very long. So even at a school that’s big on sport they might only play 10 weeks of hockey or whatever a year.

Genuine (and not being snarky) but what has made you decide that 4 and 6 year olds need specialist sports provision? They are still very little and can change massively. At 4 I’d have said my eldest was going to be great at sports and 5 years later she’s not great at any of the sports she started young but is active. My youngest is not one you’d have picked out of a line up at 4 but is looking like she’ll be the one that’s more skilled physically.

As another poster has said, all the kids I know that are on an elite path re spots are doing it outside of school. A prep generally offers better sports opportunities than state but parents will still be putting in the hours at clubs.

Another one sceptical about the need for specialism at four….

But the Dulwich schools (JAGS for girls, Dulwich for boys/ Alleynes mixed) have amazing sports provision. Great staff (specialists from reception)/ incredible playing fields/ pools.

Competition for places is super tough though. They don’t care about sportiness, they want very bright kids.

School Sports Magazine does annual rankings. Several of these schools have associated preps e.g. Millfield, Bromsgrove and Berkhamsted.

https://schoolsportmag.co.uk/top-200-sports-schools-of-2024/

You don’t say where you live though so hard to offer more advice.

OP says London area – which I agree is a wide net. I’d not want to be taking a 4yo on a journey across the whole of the capital every day.

I’d look at preps just outside London if you can manage the logistics. A lot of the Berkshire/Surrey preps have buses from London and offer flexi boarding (for later obviously) Sport is huge. There’s usually training each afternoon and at least 2 fixtures a week from about Y5.

They totally messed me around with admissions. Told me I had a place and then forgot to add us to the list so we’re never admitted to the school. When I complained, they said ‘oh sorry’. We had declined all the other places by that point. Furious.

The school is the size of a postage stamp though and very stuffy.

That’s awful!

Worth noting too that the kids are still bussed around for a lot of their sports e.g. hockey because the common isn’t suitable and the
site is small. Not that that’s unusual for the preps in that area but I don’t think it holds any superiority in sports facilities compared to the other larger preps locally (Thomas’, Broomwood etc.) so if OP is in that sort of area she’d be best looking at them all and deciding what vibe best suits the children. EHTM is quite traditional and that isn’t for everyone. But for all we know she could be in N London or something as she hasn’t said…