Major investment enhances sports curriculum
A leading independent school which counts Olympic medallists and Team GB members among its alumni, is undergoing a £4million investment in its sports provision. The redevelopment at Bradford Grammar School (BGS) gets underway in the summer and includes major upgrades of its cricket, netball, tennis and hockey facilities.
The new sports facilities will create:
• Eight outdoor cricket lanes with various artificial surfaces to fine tune both bowling and batting technique
• One and a half new hockey astroturf pitches to facilitate the school’s growing hockey provision
• Two new outdoor netball/tennis centre courts
• A new large sports barn structure to comprise four netball/five tennis courts to provide year-round, all-weather use in the day and evening
• An upgrading of the changing facilities and internal reconfiguration of its existing sports hall
The school, which has the Olympic triathletes Alistair and Jonny Brownlee among its alumni, has also brought in several new sports names as part of the redevelopment. The new sporting staff has a wealth of experience, from ex professionals and internationals to national league and age group international athletes who have represented Team GB.
‘This is an exciting time in the history of our school. Sport is central to the offering at BGS and our new redevelopment will provide the perfect environment for our enhanced sports curriculum which caters for all our young people,’ said Simon Hinchliffe, headmaster at BGS. ‘We’ve been successful in recruiting a number of staff to our enlarged sports department with specialist expertise in their fields to help deliver the school’s sporting vision.’
Oliver Rogers, director of sport at BGS, added: ‘We’re keen to nurture the interests and abilities of every child who takes part in sport at school as well as those who are keen to excel and pursue careers in it. Our new sports team will support the vision we have and, as is the tradition in independent schools, a wide cross section of academic staff will continue to contribute to BGS sport.’
The work is expected to be completed by February next year but the school has already benefited from an enhanced sports curriculum which has seen the introduction of boys’ hockey and girls’ cricket.
