Developing winners

Supporting aspiring tennis players of the future

From Emma Raducanu’s historical 2021 US Open win, to tennis legend Andy Murray making it to two ATP finals in 2022, it’s been an exciting few years for British tennis - the success has seen a huge surge in both interest and participation in the sport as a result.

New figures from the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) have captured the growth, with over 3.5 million children playing tennis in 2022 and an extra 328,000 children playing tennis in schools. This success should not be understated. Having overcome reduced access to sport due to the pandemic, thousands of pupils are now benefiting from the unique skills that participation in sports brings, boosting both their physical and mental health while fostering vital soft skills for life.

At Loughborough Schools Foundation, we’ve been at the heart of the action thanks to Loughborough Amherst School’s ongoing partnership with the LTA and Loughborough University. Loughborough University is one of two National Academies for tennis, designed to nurture fourteen to eighteen year olds who demonstrate the greatest future potential in the sport. As part of our relationship, we provide education, boarding and pastoral provision for national academy players. This year will mark the fourth year of our partnership, with further significant growth expected this year. So far, we’ve seen brilliant wins from our students, both on the court and in the classroom, with the entire foundation benefitting as a result.

Across the Foundation, we’ve been particularly committed to encouraging female inclusion in sport, an area which has not been adequately represented nationwide for far too long. In light of this, it’s been rewarding to see our female tennis players excelling, swiftly developing their performance with assistance from our talented coaches and healthy competition with their teammates.

While these achievements alone are impressive, equally so is our students’ academic progress off the court. The initial challenge the team faced was how to best accommodate a group of students travelling across the country in a high-intensity environment to ensure they had the best quality of education. Learning from what works best in practice, the end result we’ve produced is a carefully curated one-to-one programme, tailored to each individual student and their busy timetables. Every player is allocated one specialist teacher, who works with them remotely and flexibly - even making the occasional courtside appearance.

As our programme grows, we hope to see even more benefits for all our pupils, in addition to some future sports stars on our courts.

JO HACKETT Director of Sport at Loughborough Schools Foundation www.lsf.org

Life was comfortable for some back in the 1960s and 70s. If you went to the right fee-paying school and were male, the odds of gaining a place at Oxbridge were stacked in your favour. Back then, two-thirds of all Oxbridge undergraduates were privately educated. Despite the eleven-plus grammar school route for bright children from the state sector, a 1966 survey by the LSE found that grammar school students were generally ‘reluctant’ to apply to Oxford and Cambridge.

Even as late as 2000, almost half of Oxbridge’s students came from the 7% of privatelyeducated pupils. In part, this oft-cited statistic reflected the scandal that the provision between the independent sector and very many state schools was wider in the mid-1990s than at any time since the war. Since then, two things have happened. The first is that the

Blair government stuck to its vision and invested ambitiously in schools; notwithstanding current funding issues, there is no doubt that outcomes today are vastly improved across the sector. The second is that society has asked itself uncomfortable questions about equality, diversity and inclusion. It was only a matter of time before Oxford and Cambridge found themselves in the spotlight for the wrong reasons. For example, it emerged that some colleges had failed, year on year, to admit a single black British student. Notwithstanding the tireless outreach ambition of individual colleges such as Mansfield, Oxford, both universities had an image problem when seen through a ‘woke’ lens. Today, much has changed and the result is that Oxbridge now has a far higher representation of stateeducated pupils, even if some admission tutors baulk at the phrase ‘positive discrimination’.

The landscape is far more nuanced, though, than some media outlets would have one believe. Some selective state schools in leafy catchment areas rival or outperform their counterparts in the independent sector. Even in the toughest areas, some economically and educationally disadvantaged students can and do perform exceptionally well; Oxbridge colleges are now ‘contextualising’ applications from these students. How precisely this is done is somewhat arcane and critics are calling for greater clarity about the process. But few would deny that it is fair, at least, to ask the question: who is the more able student, the privately-educated pupil who scores all 9s, or the teenager from a disadvantaged background who scores 8s, but is also a carer and on free school meals?

A further factor, too often ignored, is that many independent schools play a significant role in facilitating social mobility, with bursaries of up to 100% in a good number of cases. Of those who do pay fees, very many parents make tremendous sacrifices to send their children to an independent school. Some leave independent education at 16+ to take their A Levels at a state sixth form college. Conversely, some leave their state school to take A Levels at a private sixth form. It is thus not always clear what is meant by a ‘state school pupil’.

Today, roughly 70% of all Oxbridge places are won by pupils deemed to be ‘state educated’. Given the speed of change, it is no surprise that parents at feepaying schools are up in arms at the perceived injustice of their child’s school obtaining fewer Oxbridge places year on year, not least when this affects their own child. Yet acceptance rates overall remain broadly the same, whether the applications come from the state or the independent sector. The difference is that both universities have vigorously encouraged more state school pupils to apply, through extensive outreach work, ‘taster days’ and the like. And it has worked - never before have the universities seen such high numbers applying from the state sector.

Alicia Luba, Director of Oxbridge Applications at Dukes Education, is adamant that the admissions process remains meritocratic; she insists that neither Oxford nor Cambridge is discriminating against candidates simply because they attend independent schools. “But what has changed,” she says, “is that some borderline candidates who used to get in ten years ago are no longer doing so”. The data confirms this - whilst Eton might in the past have expected up to 100 Oxbridge offers, in 2021 the school received just 48. www.linkedin.com/in/guholloway

Other independent schools have experienced a similar decline in Oxbridge places, but some claim this is offset and explained by a growing trend for their strongest students to study in the US. One HMC head sums up, “They’ve shifted the goalposts and it’s pushing students away”. Even so, Oxford and Cambridge still take a disproportionately high number of pupils from the independent sector, when considered alongside other top universities.

The consequence of widening access is that competition for places is now fiercer than ever, especially when high-achieving international students are taken into account; that they are also high-paying makes them understandably attractive to the universities. For independent schools, the good news is that the worst of the pain is now over. It is now for schools, teachers and parents to adjust to a new order. A fairer one.

GUY HOLLOWAY is the co-founder and former headmaster of a 3-18 independent school in London. Today Guy works as an educational consultant; he recently started a YouTube Channel, Confessions of a Headmaster.

TURN BACK TO PAGES 54-55 to read about choosing between single-sex and co-ed schools