Hundreds of youngsters descended upon the National Tennis Centre in London today as the Tennis Foundation and Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) held an Education Festival to mark World Tennis Day.
Young people from across the country were in action on the courts to showcase British tennis' work across the education spectrum which includes free training and equipment for teachers to help more pupils and students play tennis.
Since the Schools Tennis programme was launched in 2009, over 17,000 schools have been supported to offer tennis. The success has led to development of a further and higher education programme, with a pre-school programme currently being developed for later this year.
World Tennis Day aims to promote tennis and increase participation among players around the globe, with over 80 nations taking part with celebratory activity.
The event at the NTC saw representatives from the Department of Education, Sport England and the Youth Sport Trust join in to see for themselves how British tennis is helping more pupils at schools, colleges and universities to get involved in the sport.
Edward Timpson, Minister responsible for school sport, said: "We know just how important it is to engender a love of sport in children from an early age, which they can then carry with them throughout their lives. That is why this government is giving more than £150m per year to primary schools to spend on improving sport and PE, and trusting head teachers to spend it on what they think will benefit their pupils most. That could include organising tennis competitions between schools and may even help us to unearth another future British Grand Slam winner."
Lisa McHendry, Deputy Director of the Youth Sport Trust, said: "Today has been an excellent opportunity to view the extensive range of support that the Tennis Foundation is pioneering for early years through to further and higher education. And what better day to showcase this than on World Tennis Day!"
Geoff Newton, Executive Director of the Tennis Foundation said: "The great thing about tennis is that it's a sport for life and we know that positive early experiences are crucial to ensure people stay in the game. British tennis' education programme provides support to make tennis fun and easy to deliver in schools, colleges and universities keeping young people fit and healthy."
Dave Richardson, Head of PE at Danum Academy, Doncaster, added: "It's been fantastic to be part of the festival today and we've pupils from 11-18 years old here who've really enjoyed being part of the World Tennis Day celebrations. Thanks to the support of British tennis we've gone from having no tennis at our school three years ago to it being part of the curriculum for 12 months of the year. We've also linked up with our local tennis club and share our courts and facilities between us so more of the kids can play tennis and start competing too."
In addition, more than 50 universities and colleges are also celebrating World Tennis Day by holding timed tennis tournaments for students and their local community.
British tennis is supporting the All-Party Commission on Physical Activity, which has been established to address the serious issue of physical inactivity in society, and has submitted evidence based on insight from the tennis in education programmes.
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