How to manage sports scholar demands for elite athletes

[BigSmiles34]

My DS is in year 7 of an independent school in which he is a sports scholar (partially funded). He is also an academy footballer at a good club.

The school were aware of his ongoing football activities before starting the school, although he has started a new club since attending the school.

There were no policies, specific documents given when we accepted the scholarship, although I was aware that my DS would be involved in sport- presumably football and possibly others.

There are sometimes timetable clashes with school sports and academy training and I have been trying to manage that. The expectation is generally that my DS must prioritise school games and must always attend Saturday sport.

The academy that he is attending trains 3 times a week. 1 of the days is a “day release” from school where the boys do both education and football training.

The school has refused to give permission to “day release” - either part time or full time and have not been supportive or reasonable and only seem to be interested in my son’s contribution to school games.

I feel stuck between a rock and a hard place as my DS is very concerned that he is missing out by not attending his academy programme and feels powerless.

Any advice on how to approach this would be most helpful!

That's not as heavy a schedule as those in the North West. I guess it depends on age.

Thank you for all the advice. I have decided that if the school do not permit the day release or at least trial half day release then we will give up the sports scholarship. If, they still do not want to support without being a sports scholar, regrettably we will look for another school.

It is the first time being involved with a private school and I really did not know they could be so unsupportive of children in this situation. I guess many people simply suffer in silence.

I'm surprised the academy is allowing him to play so much sport on top. My Dd's friend plays for a well known academy, albeit in the girls team so I imagine this is even more strict with boys, and she's not allowed to do the school football team in case she's injured. Does the academy known about this?

I don't think the school are going to support the day release as a sports scholar or not. It sounds like as a minority sport for the school they are not interested in supporting your son. If DS 'makes it' to any significant level (if he stays) they will however claim the triumph for themselves. (My) DS at one point attended a state boarding school which specialised in sport. A premier league club ran their academy from that school and almost all DC who were part of the academy set up attended that school - I can see how that would be easier all round. I think you'll struggle to find a supportive independent unless football is a major sport for them and even then I'm not sure they would be keen on the day release aspect.

When my son did 11+ I asked a few of the schools he wished to apply for if they would accept him, knowing that he would miss 16 weeks a year of school time to pursue his sport. Many refused so we didn't apply, state schools actually being a lot more accommodating than the private schools, which surprised me.

Is the scholarship large? Sports scholarships near here are very small. If it isn’t too much of a hit I’d lose the scholarship. The scholarship is there so the school wins sports unfortunately.

State schools often go above and beyond to accommodate sport/music etc as it reflects well on them.

my dc got wheeled out in front of the Ofsted inspectors because she was their example of supporting an “exceptional” child. They asked her how she managed training, national camps etc alongside school and what school did to help.

Is it an academically selective school? Our school would never in a million years allow the day release. They also require a firm commitment that all children picked for sporting fixtures take part. A sports scholar has been offered the money so that the school can excel in sport and win their fixtures, not just as a "oh well done you" gift I'm afraid.

Most kids at these sorts of elite football academies links to football clubs attend a state school that has an ongoing close relationship with the club. The school has maybe a dozen children on the day release scheme and is used to managing the shared educational responsibilities. I think you would do well to find out where his friends at the football club go to school and then try to get a place at that school for your son. He is at an early stage in his secondary school education and a move will not be overly disruptive for him.

I only have third hand experience of this, but if your DS is at a Premier League academy for example then I would speak to them. As I understand it, they often have a school that they recommend/have an arrangement with that a lot of the boys go to so that they're allowed day release or whatever else DS needs. I know that there are 2 schools around here one state and one private that lots of academy boys go to, they even have a member of the staff at the schools who look after the academy boys and their particular needs.

I don't think you're ever going to get the right balance with the current school so it might be best to move while he's not been there very long.

That's not actually allowed. RTC girls are supposed to be free to play for school teams and county teams and all the ones I know do. They can also dual register with lads teams in mixed leagues. That's an RTC rule. Loads do that too.
Maybe only at highest ages it might be different.
Academy boys have price tags on their heads.
They have a value.
They often are not allowed to skate board / trampoline / ski as a result. From age 9

@BigSmiles34 The academies invest a lot of money in the boys in the hope that they can sell them later for big money if they don't get kept on by them. They can demand compensation if they move. They can in effect stop kids signing elsewhere.
This is why they expect 100% commitment and as such if he wants to stay, the right decision is to ditch the scholarship

Thank you all. @snowtrees you are right; academy boys do have a price tag on their heads and would expect all boys and indeed families to be fully committed once joining an academy. It is a Cat 1 Premier League Academy.

I will do some research on where the other boys go to school as they are all on day release and my son is the only one missing out.

Someone asked the size of the scholarship; it is 35%. I actually turned down a decent, oversubscribed state school for this school. It is academically selective as in a certain pass level is required irrespective of full fee paying or not.

I’ll comprise some questions for the meeting with the school. Main ones being:

1. What are reasons for not permitting full or part time day release?
2. Would the stance be different for a non- sports scholar pupil?
3. How many boys are at football academies and how many have been permitted to take part in day release?
4. Is there an actual policy for sports scholars to follow, as I was never given one?
5. What would be the sporting expectations for a non- sports scholar?
6. How exactly can you support my son who is fully committed to his football academy?

Feel free to suggest others if you think I may be missing something. I think it will be a nerve wracking meeting :-(

If it's academically selective the main thing the school cares about is its results. They are highly unlikely to allow day release unless it's a very short term thing.

My DC go to a top performing academically selective independent. DS1 was allowed time off in Year 7 to film a movie but on the basis that we still had to pay the fees and it was a one off thing. They were very clear that it was only being permitted though because it was year 7 which is really just a bedding in year and they needed full visibility of the on set tuition provided.

Yes very good point on written policy re scholarship expectations. With the ones near us I'm sure if says they are expected to participate in all school sports fixtures that they are selected for. The school wants to win. That's why they've given it him. They also prob want very high academic achievement. They prob think the odd of him being the next Rashford / Foden are low

Another question I’d add would be around the future, depending on the set up of the school. We’ve found that Saturday fixtures have increased from Year 9, so the demands of that might change? You might need to check this with the Academy too, to ensure that you don’t make decisions now that have be revisited in 18 months time.

I think you are also right that if he wants a chance of staying there he needs to do the day release whether people agree with it or not. It's a tough call. But academy life is ruthless .

@snowtrees I didn't know that. That's really interesting, she wasn't allowed on the ski trip too. This was for Arsenal girls. She was allowed to play for a local team, but not the school one. But even the local team was discouraged. I guess maybe it would be unusual for girls school teams to be full of advanced players so risk to injury would be higher.

@Nevermindthesquirrels The RTC rules are defo that they can and do play for school & county schools teams. The county schools teams are 75% RTC girls. They aren't supposed to be forced to miss out. There's also a national schools comp that runs and finals are StG park etc RTC girls play in school teams in that. Sounds like they've decided to set own rules.

@Nevermindthesquirrels Is she U16 of above? Never heard of RTC girls being told no skiing etc.
I do know that RTCs and County FAs have to work together to avoid county schools and RTC matches clashing

@snowtrees No, she's not 16 yet, soon though. We don't have contact with her now but this was when she was 13/14ish. I'm not sure, it all sounded very strict, they had to try out each year otherwise were asked to leave, only did swimming on top and the rest of the time was football. She had to do these self reflection sheets after each game too. Some of it might be bs idk. Not a world I have ever been in aside from DD being friends with this girl.

Anyway, I can't see a boy in an academy being able to miss the drop day and a Saturday. This girl was playing most weekends and some of the games were really far. I imagine it is a lot more intense with boys.

Yep RTC girls and Academy lads often have to write post match reflections on their performance. Part of their learning. They have to review games and various things. Missing training and matches is rare unless they have a school event etc.

And yes the boys mostly play other academies so loads of travel. Some in UK and some may be Europe (from age 7). The girls travel more from 13 upwards.

I was under the impression that players signed to academies were prohibited from playing school or grassroots football?

Boys yes. Girls no. Two totally different systems. Run by different over arching bodies. Different rules.
Boys funded to tune of prob 50x what girls is