GETTING FENCING STARTED IN SCHOOL SPORTS PARTNERSHIPS IN YOUR AREA

This briefing provides outline guidance on how to establish fencing in School Sports Partnerships (SSPs) in your area. For the purposes of this flyer, the term ‘area’ can mean County Union or club catchment area.

Necessary Ingredients. If you wish to establish a fencing project in local schools there are four vital factors that must be in place to ensure success (success = ‘sustainability’), which are;

• A demand from schools,
• Available coaches, and
• Clubs ready, willing and able to create links with those schools.
• The intention to hold intra- and inter-school competitions

Creating a Demand for Fencing from State Schools. Once you have decided what you can offer, you need to contact all the Partnership Development Managers (PDMs) in your area or a select few, depending on capacity. Their contact details can be obtained from your County or Borough Sports Partnership. England Fencing (EF) has a variety of information briefings and flyers that you can adapt to local circumstances. SSPs have funding coaching time and, possibly, for equipment. They are seeking to fulfil the government’s requirement that they provide 5 hours per week of quality sports input for every child of 5 to 16 years of age. Since not every child can, or wants to, do football, netball, rugby etc, sports such as ours can provide an attractive alternative for semi-sporty children not otherwise engaged in regular sporting activity. SSPs are seeking opportunities to establish Out-of-school-hours (OSH) clubs (also referred to as After-School Clubs [ASCs]) where children will learn a sport and, if they so wish, be able to continue their participation in a local club. In addition to ASCs there are opportunities to start up so-called ‘community clubs’ which often run as a continuation of the ASC in secondary schools.

The Coaching Challenge. The challenge is ensuring the availability of suitably qualified coaches. Usually SSPs expect coaches to be at least Level 2. Then they must be able to cover the period 15:30 to 16:30 or 15:30 to 17:30 if a community club is required. Whilst this might be a challenge for volunteer coaches who have a day job, those who can flex their time or who may be part-time or self-employed will find that this isn’t so much of a problem. There may also be opportunities for coaching during the school day. Furthermore, for mini-fencing projects in primary schools for children of 10 and 11, the system does not require a fully qualified coach and EF runs teacher training programmes to provide teachers with the skills and knowledge to run a mini-fencing course.

The Equipment Challenge. You will need to be able to quote likely costs of equipment for, say, 12 mini-fencers, or 12 ‘metal’ fencers. Where budgets are insufficient for equipment and local clubs have a stock of kit then arrangements can be made to use club equipment. Alternatively, local coaches may have their own stock of suitably sized beginners’ kit. Ideally, however, you should encourage the SSP to purchase dedicated equipment which is located at the school as this is much simpler logistically.

The Club Challenge. Forward thinking clubs around the country have already seen the benefits of close associations with local schools as a potential source of new recruits to their club. They may have established satellite clubs run by their paid or volunteer coaches, supporting them and the fencers in those satellites and providing a ‘hub’ as an additional opportunity for training and fencing. This is known as a ‘talent pathway’. Clubs that are working towards accreditation in the form of Clubmark are also more likely to be taken seriously by SSPs.

The Competition Challenge. You should be fully aware of the EF Action Plan for school fencing competitions. Such competitions have been specially designed for SSPs and are independent of but introductory to the county and regional competitions that may exist in your area. By demonstrating your willingness to develop fencing and competition for fencers in the SSPs with which you liaise, you will increase the likely demand for your offering.

Next Steps. If you would like to know more about any of the topics raised in this briefing or would like to discuss possibilities further, please contact Beth Davidson, Regional Fencing Development Officer or Norman Randall at England Fencing on 0115 911 0050 or via norman@englandfencing.org.uk .

Links to:

Mini-fencing in schools

Multi-skills exercises