Academic Study Programme
Ages 9-16 (key stages 2/3-4)
We are one of the first performance tennis environments to run an on-site academic study group. This provides players with the opportunity to pursue mainstream academic qualifications to fit harmoniously with an elite tennis training programme. Students follow a distance-learning syllabus from a college/exam board of their choice. Options include:
Mercer’s College
Oxford Open learning
National Extension College, Cambridge
Academic tutors supervise the study group between 11am and 2pm from Monday to Friday. Most of our students work towards GCSE qualifications in a minimum of English, Mathematics, Science, and Humanities, with options to pursue qualifications in ICT, and Languages. Many of our students will take GCSE qualifications 1-2 years before they would in a mainstream school. IT provision includes access to laptops and the internet. Students are encouraged to use email in order to correspond with tutors at times when they are away at tournaments.
At Tennis Midlands we fully understand the significance of parents deciding to take their child out of mainstream education in order to pursue a high-performance tennis programme. We place equal emphasis on academic and tennis performance. We are very proud of the scholastic achievement of our full-time players. GCSE grades to-date:
1 A*; 8 A's; 6 B's; 5 C's; 2 D's, 1 E
We have also had 3 students achieve BTEC distinctions.
Homework
The demands of a lifestyle that aims to combine a quality academic education with an elite training programme dictate that players are kept very busy and that ‘down-time’ between the hours of 8am and 5pm is minimal. We are very keen for all players to use evenings and non-competitive weekends for rest and relaxation. Homework assignments are kept to a minimum although there is always the option to pursue further study towards the distance-learning syllabus.
All full-time players are provided with a personal Corrective Programme by our team of physical trainers. Players are expected to spend 15-30 minutes per day going through a sequence of individualised (based on physical testing, musculoskeletal screening, and functional movement screening results) injury prevention and performance-enhancement exercises designed to complement their physical training at the academy.
Players at Tennis Midlands are actively encouraged to become ‘students of the game’. With this in mind players may occasionally receive tasks and challenges from their individual coach to be completed at home. This may involve anything from collecting ideas on a given topic to analysing video footage.
