Home School Tennis Fun!
We spoke to Kirsty and Sarah, and their daughters Rosie and Martha, about what PE looks like for home schooled children and how the Bury Knowle hub is helping the home school community in Oxfordshire!
If you’re at the hub on a Friday afternoon you’re likely to have seen groups of children on the tennis courts and in the café, that’s because every week the hub hosts 3 home school tennis sessions! We met with two friends Kirsty and Sarah, and their daughters Rosie and Martha, who helped organise these sessions to find out more about home schooling and the role the hub has in this.
Home schooling is growing across the UK with the number of pupils moving to home education rising by 22% between 2023 and 2024 (Hattenstone, 2024). Kirsty and Sarah are both part of the growing Oxfordshire home schooling community which has now surged past 1000 people! Whilst the group is large, Kirsty and Sarah’s circle is mainly centred around Headington, but it stretches as far as Reading and Wantage.
When discussing the benefits of home schooling, Kirsty and Sarah advised that one big advantage home schooling offers is that the children mix with a variety of different ages. For example, they have a football group that meets weekly at Margaret Road Recreation Ground, led by a teacher from the Swan School, that ranges in age from 9-17. The children feel they really learn a lot from each other, with the older ones guiding the younger ones, giving them someone to look up to.
The group are keen that their children get a well-rounded education, which means not just focusing on academics, but also ensuring their curriculum includes a healthy PE offering. We discussed the importance of PE in fostering positive mental and physical health, as well as developing fundamental skills. Kirsty and Sarah revealed that their curriculum covers a large range of sports, even ice-skating! Whilst we don’t currently offer ice skating at the hub – never say never! - we do facilitate their weekly tennis sessions.
Why tennis?
The close-knit home school tennis group started around 7/8 years ago at Bury Knowle. Conversations arose with Jeff, Courtside’s Managing Director, to see if he could help to facilitate a tennis offering to contribute to their PE curriculum and it went from there!
We spoke about how tennis is a lifelong and social sport that is easily accessible. It’s a particularly great option for a home school sports curriculum because you don’t need to rely on a whole team of people - you can get a super match in with as few as two! Rosie and Martha revealed that their favourite thing about playing tennis is that it’s “really fun” and sociable, and that they often “all hang out together afterwards”.
Why the Bury Knowle hub?
The group started playing tennis at Bury Knowle before the hub was built, when we were simply managing the tennis courts as Premier Tennis, but shared with us that they feel the hub has been a great addition to the park. You can often spot parents escaping the cold with a coffee whilst Coach Simon hosts their child's tennis session, and many of the older home-school group congregate in the café after their session for a bite to eat and a chat.
The home school group has moved from strength to strength over the years with recent discussions revolving around what other activities the hub offers. Rosie and Martha both seemed excited about the potential of adding netball to their already diverse PE lessons.
Finally, the group really value the friendships that have come from it, and Kirsty and Sarah described the community as ‘super supportive’; with many of them also connected through their church. Anyone that knows us knows we’re all about bringing people together and helping them to be active, so we’re delighted that we get to be a small part of their story and help foster this community spirit.
We would love to hear from you about what brings you to the hub so if you’ve got a story you would like to share, please email us at hello@courtside.uk
Reference:
Hattenstone, A. (2024). Move to home schooling biggest since Covid. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg3382380vko