Leading in Sports Leadership

Year 13 students C Ambrose-McCormack and A Braun have become the first pupils in the school to complete the Level 3 Sports Leadership Award, gaining valuable coaching and management skills, as well as UCAS points, in the process.

The boys started the qualification during the Autumn Term of Year 12, which ran for two classroom sessions a week throughout the year in addition to the practical coaching they were required to give, culminating in assessments during the Summer Term. There is only a pass or fail available, with a pass offering 16 UCAS points but, maybe more importantly, the qualification gives students skills and a taste of working in industry that they can carry forward with them.

Mr Nel, who oversaw the running of the course, explains: "The Level 3 Sports Leadership Award is an applied qualification in which students explore methods of running sports sessions in a variety of disciplines. Students gain time management, independence and leadership skills in the context of running skills sessions for their chosen discipline. The classroom sessions revolve around aspects such as types and purpose of events, health and safety and evaluating their success. The practical sessions involved the boys showing leadership by coaching pupils in the Lower School and the U16s rugby team, and at Shiplake Primary School."

C Ambrose-McCormack said about the course: "Over the course of last year we were taught many different aspects of leadership within sports and the outside world. A lesson could go from learning how to use different leadership skills and methods within a team or coaching environment, to learning and discussing as a group how we could create a campaign to get more older people involved in physical activities weekly across the country on a strict budget, or how to create a new league for different demographic groups of people. We also had to complete 30 hours of coaching, during which we would coach many different ages and abilities, to gain knowledge and experience on how to lead and coach different types of people. I feel this course has set me up very well for the future; with my new experience of leadership I feel I am able to excel in a role within the business world and also the sporting world."

A Braun adds: "Sports Leadership taught me how to manage and plan sports sessions. It has also given me a variety of soft skills including organisation, verbal and non-verbal communication and adaptability. These skills will be transferable into other aspects of life and later in life especially in the workplace."

Nine current Year 12s have started the course this year and we look forward to hearing about how they get on in due course.