Our History Uncovered

A long-term vision for success

BSB’s sports philosophy

Despite having to overcome the many of the same challenges that have affected every other aspect of school life, BSB’s athletes have excelled in all of their disciplines over the past two years, with record-breaking results in a number of sports during 2022 capping a successful return to face-to-face competition.

These results don’t just happen by chance. Not only are they the reward for all the hard work put in by students and staff alike, but they are also the outcome of a sporting philosophy which was adopted with a long term vision of success in mind.

The success that BSB has enjoyed over the last months and years can be traced back to the refocusing of the school’s sports philosophy in 2016 following a significant and visionary investment by the Board of Governors into sports facilities.

With the opening of the state-of-the-art Jacques Rogge Sport Centre that year, it was only fitting that a new, clear mission for sports should be developed at the same time. That mission, to be ‘A Global Beacon for Sport,’ would be presented to the Board of Governors at the end of 2017 in the form of the 2020 Vision: Sport Strategy. This strategy included five Whole School commitments: Every BSB student would be given the platform to become the best swimmer they could be; the whole school, from Reception to Year 13, would receive two hours of specialist PE per week; Enrichment would invest in three Tier One sports that run year-round, whilst also expanding recreational opportunities through further investment in external specialist coaches; PE provision would improve through recruitment, curriculum content, initial teacher training and academic provision, and students would have the choice to find ‘their’ sport and continue with lifelong healthy activity.

These commitments were ambitious and required a collective effort to achieve. The adaptation of existing structures, fantastic recruitment, and a school commitment to support and investment have ultimately led to BSB hitting all the above targets.

In our bid to become a Global Beacon for Sport, BSB is now the only British School in Europe to be part of the three flagship sport conferences: ISSA (International School Sport Association), ESC (European Sports Council) and SCIS (Sports Council of Internal Schools). Alongside this we are the only international school to be part of ISGA (Independent Schools Gymnastics Association) and ISFA (Independent Schools Football Association).

Our swim programme has over six hundred students, which has led to BSB becoming the leading international school in Europe for swimming – as our recent winning of all four categories at the COBIS Games and ISST events has proven.

Football has been established as a Tier 1 year-round sport in partnership with English Premiership club West Ham United, who have placed one of their Academy Coaches at the school to spearhead the programme.

BSB has also built on its commitment to bring the best staff possible to the school by recruiting world class teachers and coaches. In the last five years we have secured a GB Olympic swimmer, a GB Commonwealth Games swimmer, a Belgian National Footballer, a Belgian National Gymnastics coach and a Belgian National Rugby player to name but a few. As outstanding as these appointments have been, the most important ingredient all these staff possess is their commitment to the values of BSB – our Guiding Statements. They fit our culture. We now have a team of fifty plus professionals working hard with our students to achieve our sporting goals.

Additionally, BSB has created a partnership with TES, formerly known as the Times Educational Supplement, to become one of the few International Schools to run an internal teacher training programme which culminates in two newly qualified teachers graduating in Sports from BSB every year. On top of this the school invests considerable resources in the professional learning of all staff - new and longer standing - and this has resulted in a consistently high-performing and highlymotivated team of practitioners.

The school has also invested in 2 UEFA standard football pitches, 3 tennis courts, the largest traverse climbing wall in Europe and four outdoor basketball areas. There is no doubting this massive investment has contributed to our success. So much research clearly suggests students develop through informal play, where plenty of practice is acquired. The 2-3 hours of formal coaching a week offers the structure, but students will only become good at any sport through regular training and exposure to sport. One of the greatest things is to see students at every break and lunchtime playing football, basketball and tennis. They are accessing the facilities and improving their game without even realising.

As well as the coaching and the facilities which have helped to increase our sporting success, BSB has also invested in the details behind our winning culture. The introduction of physio support, nutritional advice and an on-site strength and conditioning coach has helped professionalise our elite athlete programmes and give our students the extra edge they need to compete and succeed at the highest level.

Of course, nothing could be achieved without the dedicated students we have here at BSB. Incredibly, our Sports programmes consistently boast a 90% sign up for students across the school who want to be involved in sport. And this high sign-up percentage is repeated year on year. Our biggest problem is fitting everyone in!

Our students want to improve and achieve great things but more importantly, they sign up for sports to enjoy themselves! A recent survey across the school asked what it is that students enjoyed most about sport at BSB, and the resounding answer, which is more important than anything else we can offer, was ‘FUN.’

And behind all the glory, investment, achievements and success, if students were not having fun, none of this success would be possible.