Watch a video from Britannia Village School in Newham as British tennis celebrated supporting 15,000 schools.
The latest results out today from an annual impact survey independently conducted by leading pollsters YouGov shows that over 98% of schools (over 1,300 teachers) surveyed said that the Aegon Schools Tennis programme had helped them deliver tennis or more tennis at schools across the country.
The vast majority (90%) of schools reported that the programme was also helping them deliver more sport in general in their school.
With an announcement about school sport expected from the Government imminently, the survey results show how the Aegon Schools Tennis programme, delivered by the Tennis Foundation and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), is well placed to build on its overwhelming success by continuing to offer free teacher training, resources and equipment to schools across Great Britain.
The results highlight how the Aegon Schools Tennis programme is helping to break down traditional perceptions of the sport with 95% of schools who took part in the survey drawn from the state sector and the vast majority (95%) agreeing that the programme was helping to make tennis more inclusive and accessible for their pupils.
The programme, which was set up in 2009 to promote grass-roots development by enabling more children across Great Britain to play tennis, has proved a hit with pupils and teachers across the country.
Top line YouGov results include:
- Aegon Schools Tennis has overwhelmingly resulted in schools delivering tennis or more tennis (98%)
- The vast majority (90%) of schools reported that Aegon Schools Tennis was helping them deliver more sport in their school
- The vast majority (95%) of schools agreed that Aegon Schools Tennis was helping to make tennis more inclusive and accessible for pupils
- Tennis is a core sport in the vast majority (96%) of schools' PE curriculum
- Tennis in PE lessons was the activity most schools used to deliver tennis
- Out of school tennis clubs were delivered by 57% of schools, with 8 out of 10 secondary schools delivering out of school clubs
- More than two million school children have been given the chance to play tennis through the programme, which has provided free resources and tennis equipment – including more than 400,000 rackets and 900,000 tennis balls
- More than 26,000 teachers have been trained to deliver the programme
Shortlisted in two categories at both this week's Education Resource Awards and the Hollis Sponsorship Awards 2013 later this month, the Aegon Schools Tennis programme continues to provide a positive, sustainable, inclusive and accessible experience of tennis for pupils in primary, special and secondary schools.
Geoff Newton, Executive Director of the Tennis Foundation, added, "At a time when school sport is high on the Government's agenda, these results show how successful the Aegon Schools Tennis programme has been in empowering teachers across the country to deliver tennis to their pupils in any environment so youngsters of all abilities can enjoy tennis.
"Whilst the results are extremely positive, the Tennis Foundation is continuing to work in partnership with the LTA to increase the number of people playing our sport. That's why we've committed to working with Sport England to develop a number of satellite clubs to get more teenagers on court and why we'll continue to make free teacher training, resources and equipment available to schools."
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