Message from Mr Boyd
Our Director of Sport has stressed the importance of putting education first after the recent revelations of a former Olympic athlete.
Mr Boyd also outlined the ways that the school helps its sports scholars academically after an emotional interview with the BBC by ex-badminton sensation Gail Emms.
He said: “Pupils are expected to be performing at their best academically and sport should always be their plan B, plan A is an education and a career.
“They can’t really choose a career in sport, it chooses them but they need to be prepared for when that decision comes. There we very few sports that are professional and very few opportunities within those that are.
“One way we help our scholars to stay on track is through our Talented Athlete seminar programme where pupils and parents are fully involved in target setting with pupils, both sporting and academic, to ensure we all know what our responsibilities are, especially the scholar as they are the one who will need to be incredibly hard working and diligent to make it all happen with a strong support network around them.
“With so many internationals here at Rydal Penrhos, keeping them focussed on their studies is essential despite the amount of intense training they have to do throughout the week both in-and-out of school. There must be a rigid structure in place to ensure that they do not miss out on any studies during their time away on competitive action for their country and regional teams, and especially with the likes of Sailing it can be very time consuming so it is essential to find the right balance.
“While many of them hold ambitions to compete at the top level for many years to come, statistics show that the percentage of those that can actually do this are very slim so having a good education and final grades to fall back on is something that we strive to ensure when they leave us to follow on their path to further education at universities across the country."