Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

How to manage sports scholar demands for elite athletes

103 replies

BigSmiles34 · 10/01/2023 20:26

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!

OP posts:
Original poster
BigSmiles34 · 12/01/2023 07:26

@Ericaequites yes it is fact that most boys will not go on to be top professional footballers. Does that mean that they must drop their place in a top academy- the best place they should be in order to have any chance of succeeding? Gone are the days when boys simply choose between academics and football. It is a requirement for most football academies for boys to be in school and performing well academically to stay on at the academy and gain a scholarship there.

You may have missed the point here. This is not about choosing between education and football. It is about a good school supporting a talented child and who persuaded him to join the school because of such talents.

OP posts:
Ericaequites · 12/01/2023 07:42

@BigSmiles34 The school will not allow day release because it will interfere with his education. They do not accept work done under other supervision, as it may not be the same as what is expected under their teachers. When this child was accepted and offered a sports scholarship, it was implied his talents were reserved for school sports during term time.

If this boy chooses to stick with football academy, he will have to find a school that will give permission for day release before he enrolls. No man can serve two masters.

FunctionalSkills · 12/01/2023 07:49

I remember seeing gymnastics kids on a Friday afternoon at our gym. They must have negotiated the afternoon at the gym from school - as a pp said gym demands a lot of hours really young (why we left!)

I think you might need to be looking at a different school so worth moving quickly.

IkaBaar · 12/01/2023 07:50

If the school are like this now, what will they be like in exam years? I’ve heard of schools no longer allowing regular day/afternoon release in exam years. I wonder if the school were used to dealing with elite kids in other sports where the clubs can be more flexible.

WednesdaysPlaits · 12/01/2023 07:56

You may have missed the point here. This is not about choosing between education and football. It is about a good school supporting a talented child and who persuaded him to join the school because of such talents.

No I think you have this backwards. In applying for the sports scholarship you persuaded them to give him a discount because of his talents and how they would benefit the school.

Original poster
BigSmiles34 · 12/01/2023 07:58

@Ericaequites you are right in that we will ultimately have to find another school who is more supportive if this meeting does not go in our favour. The school actually said that they were very impressed with the academy’s education set up and that they have not come across one like this before. As mentioned, their education is one of the best offered in the country. I honestly do not believe it is about my DS falling behind in school either. We will see…

OP posts:
Original poster
BigSmiles34 · 12/01/2023 09:04

@WednesdaysPlaits I think you are also missing the point. This is about finding balance. It’s not me saying that my DS does not want to participate in school sports. I am saying that we were led to believe that the school supported academy boys who are sports scholars and this does not seem to be the case. If they had said frankly in the beginning that they do not entertain specialisation in sports or academy pathways then we would not have gone for the school.

OP posts:
Original poster
BigSmiles34 · 12/01/2023 09:07

@WednesdaysPlaits to clarify, I used the word ‘persuade’ as my son had offers from other schools which the school knew about. They did indeed persuade us to join them over the others.

OP posts:
unfortunateevents · 12/01/2023 10:24

BigSmiles34 · 12/01/2023 09:07

@WednesdaysPlaits to clarify, I used the word ‘persuade’ as my son had offers from other schools which the school knew about. They did indeed persuade us to join them over the others.

They may have been keen for him to join, but the ground rules have changed since then – he was not with this particular Academy and day release was not on the cards. I can understand why they thought that the academy requirements were different to what they now transpire to be. I think both parties have been somewhat naive, the school in not having a formal contract setting out exactly what the obligations of a sports scholarship are and you in thinking that you could change the terms of his outside participation after joining the school.

CloudPop · 12/01/2023 11:56

BigSmiles34 · 12/01/2023 09:04

@WednesdaysPlaits I think you are also missing the point. This is about finding balance. It’s not me saying that my DS does not want to participate in school sports. I am saying that we were led to believe that the school supported academy boys who are sports scholars and this does not seem to be the case. If they had said frankly in the beginning that they do not entertain specialisation in sports or academy pathways then we would not have gone for the school.

This is exactly the point. Almost all sports scholars will have sporting commitments outside of school. How else does anyone ply for the County? Clearly school sport is important and your son needs to be available for school matches in priority to anything else, but they should be completely understanding and supportive of sport outside school. I assume you're talking football as you say academy, in which case the school are being disingenuous if they hadn't realised this was going to happen.

Tiggernpoo · 12/01/2023 16:13

OP I think you might need to do a little bit more research into the education provided by the club as I'm not sure it would compare favourably to the education provided by most schools let alone an independent school. The clubs are ensuring that the boys adhere to a basic standard required by the government in terms of the minimum number of GCSEs and passes in Math/English. My friend's son (who left his independent school to pursue football) only has 5 GCSEs and he was a former academic scholar.

snowtrees · 12/01/2023 17:59

On the point of gymnastics - the elite squads have day release or similar and a lot are actually home schooled due the amount of hours they do

whattodo2019 · 14/01/2023 09:30

You. wed to choose between the school scholarship and the academy. You can't get a discount on fees and not expect your son to give the school 100% of his sporting commitment. The school should have looked at his Academy commitments before offering the scholarship too, to be fair. But you can't have both of they clash..

WombatChocolate · 20/02/2023 12:38

It strikes me as odd. Is it a smaller or less prestigious independent school and one without a decent number of high level sports kids?

Top sports schools have lots of professional sports coaches. Their teams perform well and yes, they use their elite students to boost performance. BUT at the same time, they understand that elite sport happens outside school and requires big time commitments and they are flexible on that. The school does benefit from having them on teams sometimes and can boast about their achievements out of school, but they know that the elite sport will come first. It’s just how it is.

Schools with the best sports reputations understand this and are flexible. It is probably those that are smaller, less prestigious and don’t have the really top level sports teams who try to cling into their sports scholars and impose daft requirements.

Original poster
BigSmiles34 · 20/02/2023 17:25

I was due to update on this thread and so this message has reminded me to do so!

In response to whether the school is a smaller less prestigious school; the school is well known and desirable. It has around 1000 pupils and is in the top 25 in terms of GCSE results. It is not one of the best sporting schools, but is good, particularly at Rugby, cricket and water polo. Although they have football teams, it is not one of their major sports.

Since my last message on the thread, I have had a meeting with the school. In nutshell, they had basically said that they do not believe in sports specialism for children this age, they generally do not allow day release and have not granted this for other boys. There was one boy who has gone on to sign a professional contract with a premier league club and they allowed some kind of hybrid day once the boy had reached year 11. Others have not received this. One boy in year 10 had been trying to get day release for years but was not permitted. He was released from his academy recently. Who knows whether he simply did not make the grade or if missing the additional training hindered his development and resulted in his releasing.

The academy have said they will try to make it work until they feel that my DS is at a disadvantage over the other boys. They do invite him to train with the 13s and 14s sometimes.

Based on how they have handled previous academy players and the recent meeting, it would be accurate to say that they are not going to budge on this one. I’m not going to make any irrational decisions right now, but am making enquiries at other schools and am keeping an open mind.

OP posts:
Dodgeitornot · 20/02/2023 17:28

But they're happy for a child to specialise in a sport as long as it's at their school? They sound lovely.

Original poster
BigSmiles34 · 20/02/2023 17:49

Very true! I also wonder if my DS was given this opportunity at a rugby academy or equivalent if their stance would be the same…

OP posts:
Dodgeitornot · 20/02/2023 18:04

@BigSmiles34 that's what I was getting at. If he was invited to play for a Wales development Rugby team, they'd probably be posting that in their newsletter.

unfortunateevents · 20/02/2023 18:43

BigSmiles34 · 20/02/2023 17:49

Very true! I also wonder if my DS was given this opportunity at a rugby academy or equivalent if their stance would be the same…

To be fair, you did say in a previous post that he was expected to play rugby, hockey and cricket as well as his football at school. So that seems to accord with their insistence that they don't want kids to specialise but rather be good all-rounders.

Original poster
BigSmiles34 · 20/02/2023 20:17

That is true, I did say that and to be honest I really don’t mind my DS playing other sport as he does love sports. Some sports actually enhance his overall athleticism and strength which is a good thing. He’s a great contributor to their sporting teams and as a scholar of course he is expected to be. We just feel that they could be more accommodating.

OP posts:
DistrictCommissioner · 21/02/2023 13:34

Interesting reading! I’ve noticed a friend of DC we know a hobby is less and less able to take part due to the demands of school sport (also a sport scholar).

@snowtrees as I am from Manchester & nosy, which school do Man City use? A neighbour’s son was at MGS and at the academy but he was let go in his mid teens.

snowtrees · 21/02/2023 15:53

@DistrictCommissioner St Bedes.
Google Man City St Bedes and you can read all about it

Baller21 · 24/02/2023 16:06

BigSmiles34- I would be very interested in knowing which school this is happening at( even just the initials). We are just going through this and trying to decide if the scholarship is worth it. And like you in our initial discussions they talk about supporting academy players and being used to having them but your thread has made me worried.😳

Original poster
BigSmiles34 · 24/02/2023 20:02

@Baller21 this school is a London school. Perhaps you can DM me?

OP posts: