Sport scholarship - only 1 sport

[Yuja]

My DD is a very good swimmer - she comfortably qualifies for a range of events at county level and is on track to reach regional level next year. She currently goes to a state primary, however, through her club she has become aware of a local private school that has a strong focus on high performance swimming and is keen to apply. We can't afford it by any stretch of the imagination so would also need a bursary, but the scholarship booklet says they must be assessed in 2 sports. DD only has 1. She hasn't got the opportunity to play anything else as her school is tiny and doesn't run any sports clubs, and I don't have enough time to take her somewhere else for it around her swimming and my other DC. Is it still worth applying for sports scholarships on 1 sport or no point? Swimming is one of their listed main sports.

apply, or she will always wonder what would have happened - dont let her get her hopes up though.

Can they assess her for aptitude in something like athletics/running? She wouldn't necessarily need to be trained in it.

Could she do a netball, tennis, football or cricket camp over the holidays? She does not need to excel at a second sport just play well and show a team spirit. Having a knowledge of how to play and tactics is a good grounding.

Maybe they could do this. She runs fast although she has no training in it

They normally do basic fitness tests anyway, like a bleep test.

Also a good idea thank you I could look into this.

I definitely want to let her apply - she's so independently ambitious and who am I to hold her back. But yeah I think it's important she doesn't get her hopes up. Private school has never been on our radar as we are very average earners

Definitely apply, especially at her level! I think most schools will assess for more than one sport but kids who are at county level, but one sport is enough (tbh, many schools may award something for district level too even if they don't say that in their prospectus).

What I would say is that, regardless of sports, they're like to assess fitness and this can be a deciding factor too (thought country in itself should be enough) - so look online for various things such as bleep test and get prepared.

You / she have nothing to lose!

@zippy235 thank you! She is generally quite fit as she swim trains 6x per week and I think if she had the chance she'd be decent enough at something like netball, just hasn't really had that opportunity yet. I wish I had a bit more time and I'd take her along to something regularly but already swimming takes up a lot of time and DS has started club swimming too now.

First, how much is the scholarship actually worth? For many schools, it is often a honour with a small financial award.
I would check the conditions of any offer very carefully, especially if she only has one sport. What happens if she gets injured and can no longer swim? Or decides in the next few years that she hates swimming and wants to give up? Does she keep the scholarship or would it be taken away?
Finally, will having a school sports scholar enable her to do all of her club swimming still? Or would she be expected to prioritise school swimming or even school sports in general?

Yy that bursaries and scholarships are usually two very different things, scholarships usually not means tested and a token amount whereas bursaries are a % off the fees, often on a sliding scale according your your household income. Some schools offer completely funded bursary places. Look online on the schools website and also contact the fees officer or bursar to chat to find out how it works at this particular school.

Be careful - the scholarship might not be worth much. However, if they really like your dd they'll do what they can to get her there.

Honestly? Swimming is one of those things that can be done better at a local club with a good pool and ethos together with state school where there are no expectations to play other sports. Unless it's millfield and you are national standard!

One of my dcs has done a few sports scholarship days and they do test fitness and its very important to tell her that they might ask her to do something differently just to assess how coachable she is.

You can apply but most will want regional/national level, most children who are club swimmers reach counties in multiple events, so it doesn’t make u stand out.
Places like Mount Kelly approach swimmers at Nationals offering very good scholarships.

Regional swimmer Mum here. If your DD is able to train 6 hours/week she should be able to cope with running, especially longer distances. Try a couple of Parkruns (Juniors are on Sundays).

How your prospective school views a County swimmer will depend a lot on what their team looks like.

Being a sports scholar is a big commitment for a non-boarder. You will be expected to go to fixtures a lot of weekends. Will your daughter leave her club? How will she fit galas and training around school commitments.

If fees are likely to be tight, have a look at bursaries (these might be up to full fees in some cases - it will really depend on the school's own bursary fund). A scholarship tends to be somewhere around £1k.

Hope the trial goes well.

I know that scholarships and bursaries are different - we would have to apply for both. I'm pretty sure we'd qualify for some help if they wanted her, but sounds like she wouldn't be particularly exceptional. On the website it says that you can train exclusively at the school or if you want to stay on at your club they can make a schedule that fits around that. But neither being a swimmer or familiar with private schools I'm not sure how realistic that is.

You can apply but most will want regional/national level, most children who are club swimmers reach counties in multiple events, so it doesn’t make u stand out we are at a good club in the South East with competitive county times and I disagree with this - there are many swimmers who do not make the county times, particularly not in multiple strokes. I'm not seeing that she will stand out necessarily, just that this statement isn't true of the clubs nearest to us.

Btw op as I understand it, a bursary is very different from a scholarship. Scholarships often have little monetary value beyond perhaps tuition sessions; if you need to reduce the cost of fees you need to look into a bursary, which will be assessed based on your means.

So sorry I didn’t update my page!

Be very wary of any sports bursary or scholarships unless your child is international standard and part of the UK set up. Schools will always expect you to prioritise school events over external ones and often want some in school coaching/shared coaching which can cause issues. My son was international standard in his sport and we pulled him out of a bursary as they always put school first regardless of where it did or did not fit in with his training and competition planning. School sports coaches are usually way below the ability of top level individual sports coaches linked to national governing bodies

The easiest way to see how good your DC is would be to look at Swim England's event rankings for the past 12 months: https://www.swimmingresults.org/

You can narrow it down to Region and County

We had same problem, asp state primary. I only applied using on sport and when we were going through the logistics of him going in for it they asked what his second sport one. I just said Athletics as he has quite springy legs! No experience at all. Anyway he got the scholarship as it turns out he is fast and was in the 99 percentile for long jump! So say athletics as takes no experience and they are looking for potential.

(Sorry lots of autocorrect typos above!)

Thank you @BlueRedCat that's really helpful. Is he at the school now? Does he enjoy holding the scholarship?

We're very familiar with this!! She's in the top 20 in her region for her best events which I guess is a good sign. She's in the 11 age group with a late in the year birthday so that was the 11-12 age group for regionals. She didn't qualify as an 11 year old but has a good chance next year when she's in the 12!

Yes but at my DC’s school they are only required to take part to the best of their ability and be a role model. Training is during the week during school hours and only commitment is Saturday mornings so for us there is no conflict with anything else. My experience is most of the children who hold scholarships are not operating at a level which they will have a future career in that sport, they are just well above average for their age in that sport. Obviously there will be the children who are operating at an elite level though around the country and they will have different commitments. You should definitely apply and then speak to the relevant school if you think there will be any conflicts. It really does appear that each school has different views on what a scholarship entails.

I know of someone that was a lot higher up the national rankings than that and still didn't get a scholarship to one of the top swimming schools. They've done very well now after parents moved heaven and earth to pay.
You also have to consider that she might be good at this age but doesn't continue on that trajectory either. I can think of lots of swimmers who were top in counties but never progressed. Apply by all means but keep expectations in check.

@Glittertwins thank you. My expectations are not particularly high and I know a lot of swimmers stop. I think I should give her the opportunity to apply if she wants to seeing as it's been her idea, but I know that there will be swimmers out there a lot better than her. She's also very academic so I don't think sport is a career for her long term, just a hobby she loves a lot!