cricket training at The Coopers' Company and Coborn School in Upminster

[cricketmum24]

Hello everyone!
It's my first post ever on any forum and it's for my son who is a 11 year old budding cricketer.
He would love to go to a secondary school with a cricket focus. The Coopers' Company and Coborn School in Upminster looks like it might fit the bill.
Please could anyone comment on how good a school it is at cricket and do they provide coaching and access to net facilities to students. Any advise will be greatly appreciated.
big thank you!! :-0)

I wonder if their website might help.

Here.

It's a good school particularly if you are sporty but hard to get in unless you live very close. They do select some in sporting ability, but they also select on faith (any faith). It gets very oversubscribed.

Thank you SanityClause - I did try the wesite but not much information on cricket.
Thaks Whathaveiforgottentoday for the information on the admission process :-0)

Good luck Cricket.

Please let us know if he is knocking the Aussies for 6 in the Ashes in about 10 years time

With very rare exceptions you will find that the independent schools dominate cricket in terms of coaching, facilities and matches. State schools that have a half decent cricket offering tend to be the Grammar schools (for example Tiffin) but even in that example the cricket offering is limited and low quality (relatively).

Is he playing for one of the Essex regional teams (Surrey call them 'District', Middlesex call them 'Borough')? They are the step inbetween club and county.
The reason I ask is that Surrey certainly have a couple of schools that they prefer their County boys to attend, as it makes coaching easier.
To be honest, though, I haven't come across many state schools with a good cricket fixture list. My DS plays for Surrey and the boys at state schools tend to get most of their coaching input from their clubs or the County set up. Chelmsford is a great club - anywhere near you?

Surrey called them 'District' but no longer...

Hello OP.... my DS goes to Coopers - I asked him about the cricket facilities (it's not his thing; he was in the dodge-ball team, Havering U15 champions!)

He said the indoor sports hall has two cricket nets & mats. There is a full-size cricket field and square outdoors, plus two artificial areas for cricket practice and another three outdoor full-length cricket nets. In summer-term everyone does cricket in PE lessons and they have full access to all the equipment. Cricket whites are an optional item of PE kit - if you choose not to get them, they can do cricket in their athletics kit. My DS is not sure if every year group has both a boys and girls cricket team.

Stephen Peters (ex Essex/Worcestershire/Northamptonshire player) was a former pupil. Another former pupil is Caroline Powell - she is the sighted ski guide for Jade Etherington. A group of students got to interview them when they won medals at the Olympic games in Sochi.

It's a very sporty school - the majority of fixtures (multiple sports) are played against grammars and private schools. Coopers also has a swimming pool and there is a yearly trip for the squad to Malta. Sports day is held at the Hornchurch stadium, not at the school.

There are 189 places for Year 7 split across eight 'forms'. There are approx 24 pupils in each lesson. Ten places are available based on 'aptitude for sport' - this usually means national level. 24 sports teams qualified for national finals (gymnastics/badminton etc) in 2014-2015.

The school grounds are beautiful. I think it has around 20 acres including a (large) pond and a wildlife garden. As a parent, I've been impressed with the extra-curricular activities. The majority of clubs run over lunchtimes rather than after school. There are 40+ activities; everything from bee keeping and knitting to 'robot wars' model making (on top of all the sports clubs).

If there is anything else you'd like to know about the school, I'd be happy to answer.

Op if ds is 11, has he just finished yr 6? (I think i'm calculating correctly..) if so has he already got a secondary school lined up?