School club links at Northern Squash Club

School-club links

Club

Northern Squash Club in Gosforth, Newcastle (four-court facility).

Summary

The schools outreach programme has been developed over 10 years, showcasing squash to more than 5,000 local children. As a result, the club has nearly 200 junior members with 140 boys and 55 girls participating weekly in 17 different sessions.

How's it delivered?

The club approaches 12 local schools each spring to schedule the programme for the following school year. Typically, the programme is delivered to nine primary schools and three middle schools.

Primary schools

The coach visits each of the nine primary schools during September/October and delivers a fun one-hour taster session to all Year Three children.

This session is based around hand-eye co-ordination using junior rackets, improver squash balls and available wall space. From this session, a number of players (typically six boys, three girls) are selected from each school and invited back to the club for a free junior squash festival with the opportunity to join an after school Year Three squad which runs for the rest of the season.

Middle schools

The coach delivers a progressive four-week programme of squash in the sports hall using available wall space (with throw down lines) for individual hitting, pairs practice and then small court games. The top performing participants from each class (typically six players) who don`t already play squash are chosen to attend a school time afternoon festival on the fifth week to show them the full version of the sport.

These children return for an inter-class competition on the sixth week. When all three middle schools have gone through this process, the best players (typically six boys and three girls) from each school are chosen to represent the school in the Gosforth Middle School Cup.

At each stage of the school visits, all the children are given a leaflet about junior squash at the club which gives them the opportunity to sign up for one of the 11 sessions the club runs at the weekend.

Cost

The club have secured partnerships with the local schools to run the outreach programme. The scheme is funded by the schools through the money they receive to deliver curriculum sport as part of their PPA cover.

There's also funding available through the Primary School Sport Premium which can't be used for curriculum delivery, but can be used for extra curricular activity, equipment and training.

Workforce

The club has four coaches that are active in this programme, three of whom are graduates of the junior section. Around six sixth formers from Gosforth Academy take their England Squash Level One Coaching Award each season and as part of their training, gain experience assisting on the programme.

Additional information

Around 100 boys and 50 girls attend the club’s weekend junior coaching. The coaches monitor these sessions carefully, and when juniors are ready to progress, they're invited to attend one the club`s four mid-week after school or three before school excellence sessions. The success of the club’s school outreach programme and squad structure has resulted in:

around 60 of the club's juniors play England Squash sanctioned tournaments and are ranked nationally.
the club runs two junior boy’s teams and a junior girl's team that play in the local adult county leagues.
Gosforth Academy and the Goforth Middle school trust entered nine teams in the national schools squash competition in 2015/2016.