Sports Tours for the whole school!

It’s only for the first-team!

True and False! There is great merit in running a sports tour that gives your team players the opportunity to travel, bond, train and play in another country. Prepping at training sessions on the run up to the tour, fielding a competitive team in your friendly fixtures when you’re on tour, and participating in coaching sessions at professional clubs –  now that’s the making of a Sports Tours those students will never forget! But there’s also room for a Sports Tour that includes those students who either didn’t make the team or haven’t yet engaged with the sport.

Natalie, formerly from Royal Alexandra & Albert School, tells us how she looks beyond the team to give more girls the chance to go on the school’s Netball Tour.

“There are always girls who are disappointed because they didn’t make the netball team – that decision is based on ability. But I don’t want that to be the same for not giving girls the chance to visit another country. I didn’t want the trip to be based on ability. When planning this trip, I took the stance that it doesn’t matter about your netball skill, if you want to come on this trip and you’re willing to dedicate the time, come to training, show a little bit of progression, then you can come on this trip! I feel like it’s a good life lesson – ability doesn’t always trump people in life!”

It’s all about the sport

Friendly fixtures come as a standard with our sports tours, and we also offer professional coaching options and plenty of sporting excursions and visits too, but all these elements of a Sports Tour give students transferrable skills and emotional development too.

Natalie elaborates, “we make sure our itinerary has some educational value too – what are they going to learn? Core values, enjoyment, fun, progression and skills that are transferrable, not just practical. We used the bus to travel round Malta [to encourage independence, and self- responsibility], we might stop at excursions and ask questions like “what type of rock is that?” to use their Geography skills for example.”

And giving those students transferrable skills and teaching them sound life-lessons can start right from the moment they sign up for the Sports Tour.

“We adopt pupil led fundraising. We outline the money we need and why we need it then we nominate two girls every week to lead. From cycling the length of Malta to selling fizzy drinks, it increased engagement in physical activity, supported them to progress and gave them some accountability as they had to earn some part of this trip. Girls from different years, friendship groups, cultures and races were brought together through fundraising.”