Sport Scholarship Programme
St John’s Sport Department Values
Our Sport Scholarship Programme has been designed to support and develop pupils at an elite level, both on and off the field. We are passionate about the benefits of sport for young people, and we want every scholar to achieve their full potential. We’re proud of the strength of our sporting reputation, and the exciting sporting careers and professional contracts our pupils have achieved.
EMBRACE TOUGH:
Understand that situations that challenge us physically, mentally or morally make us stronger and to actively seek out such challenges.
‘When you know the difficult choice is the right choice, it becomes the easy choice’.
ACCOUNTABLE:
Take ownership of our behaviours and actions, recognising that the team is interdependent. We do the things we have said we will do.
GOOD PEOPLE:
Show humility and gratitude, recognising the role we play in our community. We look out for the underdog. We set the bar for the next generation.
‘It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice’.
LEARNING QUICKLY:
Recognise that being able to adapt quicker than your opponent is the best route to consistent success. Build the necessary physical, cognitive and emotional skills to thrive under pressure.
‘Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me’.
ENJOYMENT:
Understand that school life is short and precious; enjoy the fruits of our labour and celebrate our collective achievements.
‘We’re here for a good time not a long time’.
The Education Athlete
The Education Athlete is an innovative leadership pathway programme to help young athletes build resilience, enhance communication, become empathetic leaders that grow into authentic, independent men and women of tomorrow.
THE PROGRAMME
The Education Athlete is a leadership pathway programme created for young athletes, whilst also supporting parents and teachers to be external mentors to help young athletes gain the life skills to excel as they transition through school.
FRAMEWORK OF SUCCESS
Athletes learn tools and strategies to build confidence, resilience, identify their unique strengths and talents, enhance their ability to communicate and build rapport with others, positively resolve conflict and deepen their understanding of the modern world.
CREATING LEADERS
It is an innovative and pioneering programme that motivates and inspires young athletes to take responsibility and ownership of their actions and lives, engaging in academia and sport with the framework to create a purposeful life.
ENRICHING THE WORLD
The programme is designed to enhance the future of our young athletes so they can lead a life of authentic fulfilment, independence and passion, with a strong sense of self and purpose as they journey into the world beyond school.
Sport Scholarship Programme Mentoring
Our aim is to provide the best possible level of support to the whole pupil/athlete to enable them to achieve beyond their expectation on and off the field, gaining valuable life experiences and skills to ensure sport stays part of their life for the years to come.
HOW WILL WE ACHIEVE THIS?
• Dedicated sport scholar sessions to select year groups making the best possible use of space, facilities and staff.
• Dedicated strength and conditioning sessions and testing, whereby data is collected and forms part of the termly report.
• Timetabled skill and strength and conditioning sessions for Lower Sixth and Upper Sixth.
• Smaller more purposeful sessions for Lower Fifth and Upper Fifth.
• A termly report with data, test scores, feedback and target areas for development/improvement.
• A mentoring programme for all scholars.
• Education Athlete (leadership pathway programme).
• Output Sport App.
• ICE Guest Speaker Programme - a range of athletes from across world sport sharing their experiences and discussing topics such as:
- Embracing failure to achieve success
- Maintaining personal wellbeing in the pursuit of high performance
- Aspiring for excellence
- The spirit of leadership
- Preparation for performance
- ‘Being the best possible pupil athlete’
- managing academics/training
- Nutrition
- Anxiety/mental preparation
- Female athletes managing their menstrual cycle
Mentoring is proven to be among the most effective tools we have for enabling transformational growth and development in people. All pupils will benefit from a form of mentoring:
• Lower Fifth to Sixth Form scholars will have access to a staff sports mentor with a background in high performance sport.
• Sixth Form scholars will also receive mentoring and coaching training resulting in them acting as mentors to our Lower Third to Fourth Form scholars.
• Mentoring notes will be submitted via Microsoft Forms allowing all scholars to fill out their individual development plan throughout the year. Termly reviews will also be conducted by specialised staff. THE MENTORING TOPICS OF FOCUS WILL BE:
• Performance
• Identity and values
• Mindfulness
• Community and social responsibility
• Nature and connectedness
Monitoring Feedback
Athletes on the Sport Scholarship Programme will receive strength and conditioning support along with access to our OUTPUT sports platform - a tool to help strength coaches and rehab and peak performance professionals manage and improve strength, power and movement. This allows instant access to high-value data across a range of metrics to make better decisions on:
ATHLETE TESTING AND PROFILING
Assess and monitor key physical tests regularly to ensure athletes are improving and identify weaknesses. Compare daily to historical performance and stay on track and to identify weaknesses.
READINESS AND RECOVERY
Access readiness and recovery to avoid over training and to minimise the risk of injury.
ANALYSIS, CHARTING AND REPORTING
Instantly visualise key trends and compare set to set and athlete vs athlete. Share key KPIs with athletes, coaches and stakeholders with one-click dynamic reporting. Monitoring will form an integral part of the Sport Scholarship Programme, allowing both athletes and coaches to make decisions on load management, training block progression, and readiness. Objective data will be used to make decisions on scholarship retention as well as providing coaches with quantifiable, tangible, and relevant detail to help inform whether an athlete can train at their regular intensity or not, or whether an athlete has got stronger post-training block.
DAILY READINESS MONITORING
Readiness questionnaires are available for all scholars to complete on a daily basis. These scores will feed directly into the Head of Strength of Conditioning to identify athlete fatigue and risk of injury.
As part of the programme pupils will receive data on a regular basis. In addition, they will receive feedback using velocity based training (VBT) metrics giving them a template for how they and coaches might utilise VBT in an applied setting to improve their on the on-field performance.
THE POWER OF FEEDBACK
Drive intent and motivation
Example Sport Scholar Report Recent Sport Scholar Graduates
Saffy Lewis-Collymore British Universities Netball
Grace Sullivan Surrey Storm Netball
Jack Musk Harlequins RFC
Henry Jeffcott Arsenal FC
Joseph Akhurst MCC England Schools XI Captain
Josh Clarke Celtic FC
Naomi George Lafayette University Field Hockey USA
Filip Lisah Swansea FC
Ben Geddes Surrey CCC
Ryan Trevitt Brentford FC
Jodie Brine Brown University Field Hockey
The Sports Leadership Team
Acting Director of Sport Craig Holland cjholland@stjohns.surrey.sch.uk
Director of Rugby Liam St John lstjohn@stjohns.surrey.sch.uk
Director of Hockey William Marshall wmarshall@stjohns.surrey.sch.uk
Director of Netball Alice Pedley apedley@stjohns.surrey.sch.uk
Director of Football Joe Butler jbutler@stjohns.surrey.sch.uk
Director of Cricket David Hammond dhammond@stjohns.surrey.sch.uk
Head of Girls Cricket Richard Hall rhall@stjohns.surrey.sch.uk
Director of Swimming Catie Moon cmoon@stjohns.surrey.sch.uk
Head of Performance Swimming Andrea Gaget Mato agaget-mato@stjohns.surrey.sch.uk
Director of Athletics Jess Pugh jpugh@stjohns.surrey.sch.uk
Director of Tennis James Nickson jnickson@stjohns.surrey.sch.uk
Director of Strength and Conditioning James Nickson jnickson@stjohns.surrey.sch.uk
As a member of the Sport Scholarship Programme, pupils take responsibility to hold themselves accountable to the values of the programme set out by the School.
AS PART OF THE PROGRAMME, IT IS EXPECTED THAT PUPILS WILL:
• Represent the School in weekly fixtures and major competitions;
• Be a leading example to other pupils around them, both within a sporting environment and within the wider St John’s community;
• Proactively demonstrate high levels of hard work, responsibility and honesty to their peers, staff and external parties;
• Take a proactive approach to open communication and demonstrate strict attendance and timekeeping to all scholarship sessions, ensuring any problems are raised in advance of the session;
• Demonstrate a desire and passion to grow as a person and athlete;
• Be an ambassador for the School and within the community.
