A new sports science academy is breeding the next generation of budding athletes and science enthusiasts.
From this year, the Grange P-12 College has been offering an athletics development program for students with talent in rugby, soccer, volleyball or netball that includes before and after school sports training with specialised coaches, physical education subjects and basic academic subjects, including maths and English.
The school’s sports science manager Rocco Giovanniello said talent identification for the program begins from years 5 and 6 at the junior campus. Once students come to the school’s senior campus, the team works with selected students on a more regular basis.
He said about 110 students were involved in the program this year, with student numbers expected to expand.
“We had high numbers of kids that were either representing teams at state level in those sports, and we’ve got PE staff here that are pretty familiar with the coaching side of those sports, so we can give the kids a lot more technical and practical knowledge,” he said.
“There is a curriculum component to it here, which is different to a lot of other sports academy models that are out there.”
Students can also study tertiary-level sport and exercise science at Victoria University while completing their VCE, and will have the chance to go to the Australian Institute of Sport.
The Grange is also boosting its science programs with a new science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) academy.
