Top sporty secondary schools for 2022

[tachetastic]

Not a question but there seem to be a lot of threads on sporty schools recently, so I thought I would share this link to School Sport Magazine's top 200 sports schools for 2022. They have just published a list for 2023 but I don't think it is on their website yet as it was only released this week and they will be keen for people to buy the magazine.

https://schoolsportmag.co.uk/top-200-sports-schools-of-2022/

There are lots of reasons to choose one school over another, but I thought people may think this useful as a resource.

🏉🏑🏏🏊🏇

Car sharing works in local grassroots clubs. As soon as you get into even top divisions or leagues of grassroots sports then people are travelling further to get there from all over.
I know as mine do a combination of both. Eg With my DC1 on both their teams / clubs our nearest team mate is 20-25 mins away

There was a feature about junior ice hockey on The One show yesterday . The goalkeeper featured said that matches are often 2-3 hours away.

I suspect the predominance of independent and grammar schools is also because these schools invest in sending teams to regional and national competitions. They don't see their sporting commitment as limited to regular games lessons and the occasional friendly match against the school down the road. My DS is only in year 5 and he usually has two matches a week against other schools, plus games lessons and after school practice, and "tournaments" or "festivals" against multiple schools a couple of times a term. Most kids on the A teams also participate in club sport out of school. This week, DS had hockey matches on Wednesday and Saturday, and a rugby match on Sunday. Same next week, except on Wednesday it's a tournament between 15 schools.

And this is understandable because it is part of their business model. 99% of pupils at non-selective state schools come from within their catchment area, which in some cases is only a few streets or tens of streets wide. Most parents don't have a choice as to which school they send their kids to, or think they don't. And schools maybe don't feel the need to go the extra mile as they have a guaranteed studentbase. Grammar schools and independent schools are actively competing for students, and sports, music, drama and art are all part of their advertising.

It is sad that non-selective state schools are not more highly represented, but how could that be fixed? Any ideas?

@PurpleWhirple Opportunities are offered to the same very small group of children repeatedly with no efforts made to involve or include others, and no interest in selecting the strongest candidates. It matters very much who you know, not how good you are.

So what is the basis that is used if not talent? What do you mean "who you know"? Do you mean the kids of the pushiest parents are picked?

“It is sad that non-selective state schools are not more highly represented, but how could that be fixed? Any ideas?”

Funding. Money. Cash.

Rubbing one’s thighs at league tables of sporting privilege is grotesque - it’s just back slapping the advantaged.

@TiaSeeya Funding. Money. Cash.

Where would this cash come from? We know where the independent schools get their money from. Should parents pay or should it be diverted from other school funds? Or the NHS? Or benefits claimants?

@TiaSeeya Rubbing one’s thighs at league tables of sporting privilege is grotesque - it’s just back slapping the advantaged.

In all honesty I had originally posted this link on the boarding thread as performance in sport is a legitimate question asked by parents looking at boarding schools, which are primarily but not wholly independent. A parent from a state school on the list asked me to post the link here in order to recognise the achievements of state schools that are working really hard to compete, and are succeeding. This was meant to be a positive.

I suggest that if you don't like the list you should ignore it. Nobody is reading this and thinking ill of state schools that are not on the list. 99% of people that consult this list every year are parents that know their kids are going selective or independent and want to know how well a particular school that most of them are paying through the nose for is likely to do in comparison with others.

It is well known that the local Private school does scout around the nearby Primary schools looking for promising sports people to invite for bursary applications in Yr5/6... and again in Yr8/9.

The difference between facilities for sport is quite stark.. but that is what the parents ate paying for really. Facilities and opportunities.

My children's school is a standard comprehensive school and is in the top 100. All the sports open to everyone.

Wonderful! So it can be done!. 👏👏👏👏👏

OMG this thread beggars belief 😂😂😂

@tachetastic
Money. Funding. Gov policy.
Most state high schools have 30 min for lunch as no staff to supervise playgrounds longer never mind run lunch sports clubs.
A few PE teachers have the try cover after school clubs plus fixtures and literally can't do both.
If our state comp had 8 female PE teachers not 4 and 8 male ones not 4 then the number of clubs and fixtures would double.
But no money

Okay, when I asked for suggestions as to how this inequality could be fixed, I meant more like plans. You can't ask for money without specifying where it comes from.

But what else could schools do? Could they push to be included with independent schools in the rounds of matches on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons? That would raise the profile of the school and mean a lot more matches which would be great for the kids, and may not cost that much beyond petrol, at least for Wednesdays. I suspect many independent schools would be open to that in a positive sense.

Of course kids in lots of independent schools attend lessons on Saturday mornings, which makes up for Wednesday afternoons at matches which kids in some state schools may not welcome (though my DD is in a state school with Saturday morning lessons). Nothing comes for free!

🙌 agreed

DS is at a London independent school. They play around half of their Saturday Rugby and Football matches against State Schools so it can be done.

@tachetastic our teachers would happily do it. They have told me. We have loads pitches.
But not enough of them to cover.
The end

They pr

They pr

Probably invite state schools in. I'm north west and I literally know no state school that runs fixtures as weekends as no staff to cover . Not in their contracts

Which I guess explains why there are so many amazing rugby, hockey, cricket and football clubs run largely off of the good nature of volunteers (mainly parents) at minimal cost.

The quality of rugby at my DS's local club is way higher than that at any independent school in the area, and 50% of the kids come from state schools where rugby isn't even on the curriculum. But they love it.

Easy to get any DC sports coaching out of school. Loads of local cricket, football and hockey training. Always looking for new members.

Very few highly competitive teams would be ignoring good players in favour of less good players. If they do this all the time, how do they win things? My experience has always been the best players are picked repeatedly and lesser good players miss out repeatedly or play in second teams or third teams.

Either people just aren’t reading the thread or there is some next level cognitive dissonance going on.

“Easy to get DC coaching out of school”.

How does that work then if you work FT, have two or more kids, don’t live near the training or match grounds, or the money for gear and subs?

As mentioned before, DC played academy football for a few years. He was able to do this because I worked PT and have a car so could drive him after school. Younger sibling was dragged along sometimes and other times got another parent to take her swimming. So we weren’t hanging around for hours, DH would collect DS on way home from work and get train home with him.

This relied on us having enough money for:
me to work part time
fuel and train fares
a reliable car to get him there
a reliable train service near our house
activity for sibling and friends to help with this

The funniest thing is that he then went to one of the state grammar schools on your list who prioritise rugby so heavily over football that he played none the first few years at school. Because they didn’t have the staff or facilities to focus on more than one sport a season.

Near us, the grammar schools do take part in Saturday as well as mid week fixtures. But I think the real difference (from talking to friends with kids at the grammars) is the depth of participation. At the grammars, they can find the resource to run fixtures for the A and perhaps B teams, but that's it. At the local independents, all the kids take part in hours of weekly sport plus at least occasional matches.

I agree with others that a lot of families in state schools will use clubs to supplement school sport. But there are issues with this. First, the issues that others have mentioned - that you need the time, commitment and tansporr to be able to facilitate that as a family. But the other issue is that less sporty kids are not going to want to give up their Saturday to go and play football. The point about regular, compulsory sport in schools is that everyone does it, which is important from a health and educational balance point of view. But the focus of the government's education funding and inspection is all on exams, safeguarding and mental health, not on wider provision. There simply isn't enough focus on making sure state schools have the resource to provide sport, music, drama etc in schools, particularly secondary.

@grrrrrrreat and they miss the face that exercise / dance / sport / drama etc helps mental health and healthy lifestyle habits

@tachetastic all those grassroots sports would soon become 30% more expensive if volunteer coaches / club officials etc got paid. Clubs would become employers too. They are cheap as no profit is made