The Sports Performance Programme (SPP) was launched in September 2019. It aims to support and develop Sports Scholars and Performance Athletes within the school.
Belmont offers an 11+ Scholarship as well as a Performance Pathway for pupils in Year 8, preparing them for the 13+ entry point at Mill Hill School.
Talented individual athletes are invited to trial for our two-tiered Sports Performance Pathways, involving up to four places as a Sport Scholar and 20 places in the Performance Pathway. The programme is the first insight many of our athletes will have into a performance sport environment.
Enjoying access to top-level facilities and an excellent mentoring scheme that seeks to maintain the academic work / sport balance, our selected pupils will be able to enjoy sport and their school career at the same time.
Awards are for the duration of the candidate’s time at Belmont. At 13+ Belmontians are put forward again for the 13+ range of scholarships that are available for the next five years at Mill Hill School. They are all dependent upon active involvement in school sport and behaviour.
Sports Performance Pathway athletes are eligible for the following throughout their time on the various pathways:
Belmont Sports Scholars expectations
Candidates entering for the Scholarship pathway should be aware that if offered, sport will become a major part of their school life. Scholars are expected to take a full and active part in the sporting life of the school, and will find themselves performing in fixtures during the school week and some weekends in addition to their individual coaching commitments.
What a Belmont Scholar would look like:
Scholarships will be reviewed annually and their continuance is dependent upon attitude, conduct, participation and progress
What is the required standard?
For entry at 11+ candidates will be expected to be at club or county level in their main sport and often offer a second sport (though this is not a prerequisite). The over-riding factor in whether a candidate receives an award will be whether they show exceptional athletic potential in their assessments. In addition to the Sports Scholarship application form, we ask that two references are submitted by the applicant by the deadline provided. If you are in any doubt about suitability for an award, please contact office@belmontschool.com
Trials for entry in September will take place during the Spring Term of that year; successful candidates will be required to meet the school’s academic entrance requirements. Key application dates can be found here.
On the day of the trials all candidates will take part in three activities including two of their chosen sports and a team-building activity.
Candidates are assessed individually and as a group involving a variety of physical measures in order to demonstrate a combination of athletic ability and hand-eye co-ordination.
Ms Goldthorpe, our Director of Sport is always happy to meet with prospective candidates and their parents, and to answer enquiries at any stage of the application process. Visiting the school during Open Days however is seen as an important part of the application procedure as it gives the candidates and their parents the opportunity to see the sports department in action, see where their trial would take place, and helps the candidate feel at ease when they come for their formal assessment.
Sports at Belmont
Belmont have five ‘focus’ sports across two terms, with boys doing rugby and football and girls playing hockey and netball. In the Summer Term, boys and girls play cricket together. Alongside the focus sports we also offer greater depth and breadth in our support sports which include girls’ football, athletics, swimming, gymnastics, tennis, fencing, fives and table tennis.
In the last academic year Belmont pupils have enjoyed a whole range of sport tours from weekend and week-long Rugby tours to Brighton and Biarritz, a Girls’ sports tour to Malta, IAPS football and netball tournaments in Cambridge. Further afield, pupils have enjoyed cricket and netball tours to Antigua and Barbados in recent years.
