The Ramsey Academy, Halstead is delighted to announce that they have been chosen as one of 21 schools across the country to take part in the pilot of the Tennis Foundation’s new School of Tennis programme. The first national training day took place in Loughborough and equipped us with the skills and knowledge to roll out the School of Tennis Programme in our school.

The programme, run by Britain’s leading tennis charity the Tennis Foundation, aims to radically change the way tennis is delivered in secondary schools to make it more relevant and engaging for teenagers. There is a sharp dip in tennis participation as young people reach their mid-teens. The School of Tennis programme aims to reverse this decline by giving secondary schools the support and funding they need.

Schools have been clustered in threes in order to support, motivate and share best practice with one another. Each school is eligible to receive up to £3,000 of support over for the pilot and will work across key themes of Teaching and Learning, Student Leadership, Facilities and Equipment and Community Links.

Paul Williams, Schools Tennis Manager at the Tennis Foundation said: “We’re delighted to be in Loughborough today to welcome coaches, teachers and students from our 21 Schools of Tennis. Today will officially ‘kick off’ the programme which is hugely exciting. The pilot programme, which will be evaluated by the Sports Industry Research Centre, will run from now until November ahead of a wider roll out in 2017. - Miss S Patching