11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi everyone! Can you help me please. What does this phrase mean..."for sport scholarship child should be competing at a minimum of a club level...". What kind of level exactly? Is it the same as swimming levels from 1 to 8 or it is much higher?
What should include sport CV? Is this scholarship only for children who were attending sport clubs five days a week and have real achievements in sport?

Difficult isn't it? Haven't a clue about swimming levels (presumably they vary from place to place..??)

Re "Club level" - presumably playing for a club - but some places I have lived there are so few kids around that they are roping in really rather small siblings to keep wicket etc etc .... no big deal playing for the club there! Possibly they mean rather bigger clubs?

I don’t know anything about swimming levels I’m afraid, but when I refer to ‘club level’ I mean a child who plays representative sport for one or more club teams but who isn’t competing at county level.

Of course as Hermann points out this can vary quite a lot from sport to sport but in general I would use that term to describe a child who plays for a school team and is sufficiently interested in a sport to pursue it by joining a club. Does that help?

For swimming I would expect it to refer to swim times e.g. times for a particular distance e.g. 50m crawl/breast stroke/backstroke/butterfly. If a child swam for a club or even the school team they would usually have been in timed races. Times obviously would depend on age. Plus they would also want to know how often the child trains per week. As more training would hopefully lead to better times..

It generally means having been picked for a county team and being a regular player. The same goes for swimming, so swimming competitively with a swimming club, at which point a child would have gone past the usual levels. They would expect, on average, for the child to be in the A teams but they are looking for the above as well.

I agree with Waiting for G. Normally child will be competing outside of school, as well as in school. Competition can be tough depending on which school you are applying for. One of the children at my daughters school is applying for a Sports scholarship and she trains for many hours a week outside of school, ie before school gets up at 5.30 am to train before school each morning. Competes country wide in competitions. At my son's school you need to be playing for the county to stand a chance. All that said I always say Go For It, nothing ventured nothing gained. No harm in asking the school(s) you are applying to for more guidance. I did this re a music scholarship.
Lots of luck.

If it says club level, it can indeed vary a lot, but I would expect it to mean not necessarily as high as county level (which most indies ask for I believe)

I would simply phone and ask the registrar at the school. You will then most likely get a friendly person on the line, who will explain what the school would like to see on your dc's sports cv.

It generally means having been picked for a county team

Er, no, because that would be 'county level'
But playing regularly, outside school, and competing for a club, yes.

A bit more explanation. Some schools want good all-rounders for their sports scholarships because the chances are that a DC who is good at a lot of sports will play in the school teams and enhance them, so the school benefits directly.

A DC who plays county or regional sport will almost certainly need to pursue that sport outside school, to a higher level, so there is every chance that the school won’t directly benefit, but of course some schools like the kudos and the vicarious credit of having DCs they can boast about.

I don’t know which school(s) Dreams is looking at, but if the first of these applies, they might well be looking for a DC who plays several sports to a good, ie club, level rather than one sport to county level or above. HTH

It means playing for a club as well as playing at school. My dd's play for a netball club and train at an athletics club as well as representing the school. Their netball club does not audition but has an A and a B team and plays weekly matches. Their athletics club will ask parents to enter their children for various district and county events but leaves it fairly flexible. We are really really fortunate to have access to these opportunities but many live too far away so I would mention that in your application if it is the case. There are also county netball and hockey teams but we just cannot make that level of commitment as we are weighed down by sport and music. Both my dd's did sports and music scholarship applications at local private schools. They had a really enjoyable time and I would recommend the experience. Not sure if you live near me dreams, there is only a very small area you could live in to take the combination of exams you did so maybe I can help further. Pm if so DG