Young athletes need more than a flexible timetable

Why we should stop retrofitting education around sport, and start with the young person.

A young athlete can have a timetable that accommodates training and still have an education that doesn’t meet their needs.

They can access learning materials from anywhere and still feel disconnected from school.

They can complete the work set for them without anyone really understanding how they think, where they are struggling or what else they might be capable of.

That is the distinction we need to take seriously.

When we talk about education for young athletes, flexibility is often the headline. [ADD LINK on “flexibility is often the headline”: flexi-schooling post, /flexi-schooling-for-young-athletes/]

Can lessons fit around training? Can students study while travelling? What happens when competition interrupts the school week?

These are important questions. But they are not the whole brief.

Our responsibility as educators is not simply to make room for sport. It is to provide an education that recognises the whole person pursuing it.

Start with the person, not the timetable

In “Beyond the player“, I explained that our goal at Sophia is not to produce top players. It is to develop good people and future leaders.

That ambition changes the questions we ask.

Not simply: how do we fit schoolwork into the hours that remain?

But: what does this young person need to learn, to grow and to take ownership of their future?

Their sporting ambition matters. So do their academic interests, their relationships, their judgement and their sense of who they are beyond performance.

A model designed for young athletes should make space for all of that. Not as optional extras once the academic work is finished, but as part of what school is for.

Access to content is not the same as being taught

Independent study has a place in education. We want young people to develop the confidence and discipline to work things out for themselves.

But independence should be developed through teaching, not assumed in place of it.

Providing materials answers one question: what can a student access?

It does not, on its own, answer the questions that matter next.

Have they understood? Can they explain their reasoning? Can they apply what they have learned? Do they know when to ask for help?

Those are the questions we want teaching to uncover.

For us, a student completing the work is not the end of the conversation. We want to hear their thinking.

Being known is part of the model

We do not want a young person to be visible only when they achieve something or when something goes wrong.

We want to know the student who is finding a subject unexpectedly fascinating. The student who has a different perspective but needs encouragement to share it. The student whose sporting confidence does not yet extend to the classroom.

That is why the relationships within a school matter to us.

At Sophia, our approach includes live, small classes built on discussion and collaborative work, alongside a weekly one-to-one mentor meeting for our students. These are practical ways of creating space for students to participate and be heard.

The intention is not to monitor every moment. It is to build a school experience in which asking questions, contributing ideas and seeking support are normal.

Build development into the school week

If we say character and leadership matter, we need to show where they belong in the education we provide.

At Sophia, Holistic Horizons provides a daily form session delivering the PSHE curriculum.

Sophia365 on Fridays includes leadership, media training, financial literacy and career transition.

These are not separate from our ambitions for young athletes. They are part of them.

We want students to think carefully about how they communicate, how they treat people and how they make decisions. We want them to have interests and capabilities that extend beyond the next selection, fixture or result.

Sporting ambition and broader personal development should not have to compete for permission to exist.

Education is not a contingency plan

There is another reason to move beyond the timetable conversation.

Education has value whether a young person goes on to a professional sporting career or not.

It should not be presented as something to keep in reserve in case the dream fails. Nor should academic ambition be treated as a lack of commitment to sport.

A young athlete is entitled to be intellectually curious now. To enjoy a subject for its own sake. To develop an ambition they have not yet put into words.

Our role is to keep those possibilities open and give students the knowledge, qualifications and confidence to pursue them.

A different design brief

Retrofitting starts with an existing school model and asks what can be moved, removed or made optional.

Designing for young athletes starts with a different question:

What must we protect, even when a young person’s schedule is demanding?

Our answer includes teaching, relationships, academic challenge, personal development and a sense of belonging.

The timetable needs to work. But so does the education.

Success, for us, is not simply a student who can keep studying while they compete. It is a young person who leaves with knowledge, curiosity, judgement and the confidence to shape their own future.

That is what we mean by looking beyond the player.

Frequently asked questions

What is PSHE education, and do schools have to teach it?

Personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education covers health, relationships, risk and money. The Department for Education describes PSHE as a non-statutory subject that all schools should teach, while relationships education is compulsory in primary schools and relationships and sex education (RSE) is compulsory in secondary schools. Revised statutory guidance on RSE and health education came into effect on 1 September 2026. At Sophia, the PSHE curriculum is delivered in Holistic Horizons, a daily form session of 15 to 20 minutes.

How does one-to-one mentoring help a student athlete?

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) finds that mentoring adds about two months of progress in attainment on average, and some studies report larger effects on attitudes to school, attendance and behaviour. At Sophia, every secondary student meets a mentor for 15 minutes each week, and the meeting continues while an athlete travels for training or competition.

Is independent learning enough for a young athlete who studies online?

Independent learning works best when it is taught. The EEF rates explicit teaching of metacognition and self-regulation, where teachers model how to plan, monitor and evaluate learning, at about eight months of additional progress on average. At Sophia, lessons are taught live in classes of six to eight students, so teachers can ask students to explain their reasoning during the lesson.

How can a young athlete combine sport and education?

Families can compare how each school builds its timetable, what happens to missed lessons, where exams can be sat and who supports the athlete each week. Sophia’s athletes page explains how lessons fit around training and competition, with separate pages for footballers, racing drivers and the England Squash partnership.

What is Sophia365?

Sophia365 is Sophia’s development programme for students with demanding commitments outside school. For athletes, it runs on Fridays and covers leadership, media training, financial literacy and career transition. The wider Friday programme of enrichment, Houses and competitions is on the enrichment page.