Sports Academy
Our aim at Crown Hills is to enhance social mobility, increase cultural capital and improve personal development through our vision and values.
Sport is a central pillar within schools which builds confidence and belief in students. The Sports Academy enables students to fulfil their potential, becoming role models who excel within their sporting context and demonstrate a range of purposeful leadership qualities which aid them for future success. We want our students to be able to compete with the best nationally and internationally. Therefore, we have created an academy that allows our students to close that gap and help them to compete with the best.
Students can be awarded a place in the Sports Academy programme at either Development, Bronze, Silver or Gold level. These levels are determined by students' ability to consistently demonstrate and execute the set level criteria, which has been curated to include elements of physical skill, tactical awareness and professional conduct. The Sports Academy criteria closely aligns with the wider mission of the school and champions commitment, as students are expected to attend all required training sessions and fixtures, as well as achieving expected commitment scores within Physical Education.
Selected students from Years 7 to 11 will follow a calendared programme of high-performance coaching, mentoring and strength & conditioning delivered both before and after school by a team of expert practitioners through our main partnerships with British Fencing, Leicestershire County Cricket and Badminton England. Specialised selective training will also take place during the school day.
To find more tailored information about what is offered for each sport within the Academy, please see drop-downs below.
Badminton
What is offered:
Students receive a total of two hours per week of expert Badminton coaching. These are structured as hour-and-a-half after school sessions focused on skill development, footwork and tactical play. As well as a 30-minute morning session where skills can be applied in competitive contexts. The Badminton programme has exhibited an immense amount of success for students.
To find out more, please check out our Student Success section below.
Fencing
What is offered:
Students receive two and a half hours a week of elite Fencing coaching. These are structured as an hour-long expert fencing sessions with a specialised Sabre coach, as well as an hour of after-school Fencing coaching session to refine skills and tactical application. A 30-minute morning session to practice and develop skills in a competitive environment is also available for Sports Academy Fencers before school.
The Fencing programme at Crown Hills has demonstrated a vast amount of success so far. To find out more, check out our Student Success section below.
Cricket
What is offered:
Students currently receive 1.5 - 2.5 hours a week of elite cricket coaching. These are broken down into an hour of specialised coaching for our girls and our boys' teams after school. As well as a 30-minute session before school for students to practice skills learnt in a competitive environment in nets. Select students have also been invited to join an hour-long MCC HUB, a prestigious opportunity to receive training from Leicestershire coaches.
We are also preparing to launch an after-school hour-long social session where students are able to use the cricket nets, as well as a 30-minute morning training session for Sports Academy cricket players.
To find out more about the success that the Cricket programme at Crown Hills has achieved, please check out our Student Success section below.
Strength & Conditioning
Our Sports Academy athletes are offered a morning Strength and Conditioning session, which takes place once a week before school. Students take part in a tailored training programme, focused on developing the components of fitness related to their sport. Attendance to this Strength and Conditioning session is not mandatory, but it is heavily encouraged for students who wish to gain an extra edge in their sporting development.
Student Success
Badminton:
Teams have been training since September for the competition period of the year and have experienced success so far.
- The KS3 boys A team qualified for the Team Leicestershire County Finals.
- The KS3 boys B team finished 2nd in the East Leicester round.
- KS4 boys qualified for the Team Leicestershire County Finals.
- KS4 boys B team finished 2nd place in the East Leicester round.
- KS3 girls qualified for the East Leicester finals.
- KS4 girls finished 2nd place in the East Leicester round.
CHCC are once again this year hosting the Badminton England National Schools Cup competition. The following teams competed in the county round: KS3 boys, KS4 boys and KS4 girls teams.
Cricket:
- Our Year 7/8 boys qualified for the indoor East Leicester finals.
- The Year 9/10 boys indoor B team qualified for the East Leicester finals.
- Girls team through to the East Leicester finals.
- Our Year 7/8 girls team qualified for the indoor East Leicester finals, after winning their qualifying matches.
- Our Year 9/10 girls team have qualified for the indoor East Leicester finals.
Fencing:
7 of our Year 7 students have attained Sports Academy Development level in Fencing and have therefore been invited to elite Fencing coaching. This takes place on Thursday before school or Period 1 with our elite fencing coach Chris, who comes in to deliver these sessions. They have been learning how to use the Sabre with a metal kit.
Our fencers have performed very well in friendly interclub events that they have been involved in, with several students committing their time at the weekend to compete!
We are also looking to host our own fencing competition here at CHCC in partnership with Leicester Fencing Club.
Upcoming Events
Mentoring
As part of their involvement in the sports academy, students have had access to a specialised mentoring programme. This is a brand-new initiative that started this year and is aimed at improving our Sports Academy members holistically, beyond that of just their high level of sporting performance.
Students take part in these small group mentoring sessions during Tutor Time, working independently to create a series of targets following the SMART structure (Specific, Measurable, Agreed-Upon, Realistic and Time-Bound). These targets focus on their Sports Academy sport, their wider academic career, as well as broader skills they wish to improve to benefit them holistically, such as communication, organisation and confidence.
As well as setting targets, students establish pragmatic actions and steps they can take in pursuit of achieving their goals, with a clear vision set out over the course of each meeting as to how best to progress towards success. Students then reflect and review the success of their targets and actions in subsequent mentoring sessions, adjusting and realigning their new targets with further development to prevent stagnation.
The goals of these mentoring sessions are not only to develop students holistically, but also to provide a platform for them to reflect upon the actions they are taking towards their own development and continuously improve.
