Sports Leaders Programme

Northfield Academy is a six-year, fully comprehensive, non-denominational secondary school located in Aberdeen with a roll of approximately 1000 pupils. The Physical Education Department has been running Sports Leadership Awards for over five years. The Sports Leadership course is central to the vision of Tom Clark (Acting Principal Teacher of PE) to develop pupils who contribute to the whole school and wider community. By fostering a climate where pupils are effective contributors and responsible citizens, they develop confidence and become successful learners.

What is the Sports Leadership Award?

The award is a nationally recognised qualification that helps people develop their leadership skills.

The courses have been developed by Sports Leaders UK and are designed to foster generic skills, such as organisation, communication and safety, which can be applied to a variety of different sporting activities as well as contributing to the candidate's personal and social education.

It’s a practical qualification where candidates learn through doing, rather than through written work. A candidate's ability to be a competent leader is assessed by observation rather than written tests.

Who can become a Sports Leader?

Anyone can do a Sports Leadership Award, as long as they are 14 or older and have some 'get up and go'. People don’t need to be sporting superstars to get involved. No qualifications are required to start the course and there are no exams to sit at the end. As part of the course, people actually lead sports and physical activity as volunteers. They learn how to organise and motivate themselves and other people, and improve their communication skills. This can really boost young people's confidence and help them in work, education and life. A Sports Leadership Award is a nationally recognised qualification and can help people get a job or to enter further education.