Taunton School Sport begins with an ‘End in Mind’ approach and is driven to support the whole community in developing a lifelong enjoyment of sport and exercise. The department aims to ensure that every student feels valued through engagement with Sport, fostering an inclusive climate that ensures participation and competition work in harmony to deliver outstanding outcomes, whilst developing good people who will make positive contributions to the world.
Sport
We aim to ensure every student feels valued through engagement with Sport
Our sporting ethos is built on the concept of ‘GRIT’
The sporting ethos of the school is built on the concept of ‘GRIT’, encouraging students to embrace an understanding that perseverance and passion will lead to achievement of ambitious long-term goals. The four main areas of ‘GRIT’ – Grounded, Resilient, Integrity and Tenacity – are explored extensively throughout the school year, in both individual and team sports. Our students are actively encouraged to transfer their core skills, competencies, behaviours and attitudes far beyond the sporting arena, impacting positively all areas of school life.
A wealth of sporting opportunity
We support and create opportunities for all students to contribute to the sporting story of Taunton School, whether selected to represent a school team or through participation in a house competition. There are over 120 representative teams across 20 different sports, demonstrating the breadth of offer at Taunton School.
Our extensive programme also enjoys outstanding levels of achievement, with considerable success in county, regional and national competitions. Many of our students perform at age grade county, regional, and international levels across a range of sports, with many choosing to continue with high performance sport at university, often receiving scholarships to support their studies.
The Three Sport Pathways
Taunton School focuses on a multi-disciplinary approach to school sport, with each student encouraged to be an active participant in the core sport of that term. We believe the later a student specialises in training and performance, the greater chance that student has for holistic, physical, mental and social development.
We have three sporting pathways, designed carefully to enhance and develop all levels of ability, experience, and ambition. Each and every student at the school is able to access one of these pathways, central to our fully inclusive offering:
High Performance Pathway (HPP)
We are committed to providing high quality, carefully tailored support to all our athletes who are looking to become high performing sports people through our performance programme. This programme is delivered by our elite coaches using our excellent facilities and includes:
- Athletic development
- Specialist skills workshops which include one-to-one or small unit sessions
- Rehabilitation
- Weekly scholars’ lectures on the following topics: Movement, Mindset, Nutrition, Recovery and Sleep.
Under these headings we also deliver sessions on sport psychology, performance analysis, and breathwork, whilst addressing a range of gender specific issues that can impact on engagement in Sport.
Potential High-Performance Pathway (PHPP)
Not all young people fit neatly into year groups where they all develop at the same rate physically, mentally, and socially. Development can happen at different times to different people, dependent on birth month, previous access to sport coaching and competition, and genetic dependent maturation. With these issues in mind, we have created the ‘Potential High Performer Pathway’.
Potential High Performers are students in Year 9 and 10 who have aspirations to achieve excellence in the Senior Upper School and beyond. These sessions are focused on students who demonstrate good ability, high levels of coachability, and are motivated to improve in a chosen pathway.
Performance Development Pathway (PDP)
For students new to the school or those who are simply enjoying their first experience of hockey, cricket, tennis, netball, or rugby, their journey and development starts from the first time they walk on the astro, pitch, or court.
The Performance Development Pathway will sit at the beginning of their journey, encouraging participation, with ability or experience removed as a barrier.
Using a coaching syllabus developed by each Head of Sport, the pathway will include specialist coaching before students are given the opportunity to engage competitively within our in-house games programmes and fixtures against other schools within our regular Saturday block opponents. We hope to provide a pathway of opportunity, bridging the gap between experience levels, access to high level coaching, a chance to move up to higher representational teams, but mostly to feel valued and developed.
Taunton School’s Sport Impact Report
It is with great pride that we can share with you the many successes and highlights from the past academic year at Taunton School in this report. It is designed to recognise, celebrate, and highlight individual and collective achievements of the Taunton School Sport community.
Sports Facilities
Taunton School provides extensive, state-of-the-art sporting facilities across our 56-acre campus.
There are exceptional indoor and outdoor facilities for traditional team games and other sports, including three indoor sports venues, two indoor swimming pools, a well-equipped fitness suite, eight netball courts, three multi-purpose floodlit Astro Turf pitches, a purpose-built dance studio, an athletics area, 4 flood-lit hard tennis courts, two squash courts and a climbing wall, as well as our grass pitches for Cricket, Rugby and Football.
Athletic Development
We are committed to providing quality support for all students who have a goal to maximise their potential and wellbeing.
A weekly programme is delivered each term that all students can access, be that within the core games programme, within individual support sessions, or in our extensive club’s programme, taking place before school, during lunchtime or after school. The programme focuses on ‘Long Term Athletic Development’ through improvement of students’ physical ability, movement literacy and robustness, embedded within our multi-sport pathway.
Student programmes are planned and monitored to ensure each student receives the necessary support to achieve their personal best. Liaison with external agencies for students on pathway sport gives a holistic view of the student’s lifestyle and wellbeing.
