Following the exceptional performance from British breakthrough star Emma Raducanu, who captured her first Grand Slam at the US Open over the weekend, Emmamania is already inspiring pupils aged 4-11 to get more involved in tennis – and LTA Youth, the flagship programme from The LTA, the governing body of tennis in Britain, has teachers across the country covered.
There is no better time to get more kids hitting super serves like Emma. The LTA wants all primary school children to see tennis as a fun activity, while simultaneously enhancing their personal and character skills during lessons.
Tennis is an activity that can easily be incorporated into everyday life. All you need to play is a ball, racket and away you go. So far the programme has over 10,000 teachers involved.
LTA Youth’s assembly and classroom challenges, in addition to the programme resources, are the perfect solution for primary teachers looking to use the phenomenal success of LTA Youth Ambassador Emma Raducanu’s efforts to engage with their pupils at school right now.
The challenges contain some simple ‘warm-up’ activities, which will take children around 15 minutes to complete. Children can then take part in exciting, tennis themed lessons, lasting around 45 minutes, covering subjects such as numeracy, literacy, geography and science. These challenges are aimed at children.
LTA Youth Schools is the LTA’s innovative junior programme created to help more children enjoy the benefits of playing and staying in tennis, whatever their age, gender, ability, disability or background.
This is the first curriculum aligned set of tennis resources available and is based on world leading expertise, research and science, and drawing on insight from parents and players – perfect to build into lesson planning for the new school year covering topics such as; PSHE and Physical Education.
The LTA are keen to open up tennis to more children across the country by using tennis as a theme to discuss curriculum orientated work and with recent British success, the topic of tennis is at an all-time high.
Former teacher and Head of Education & Community at The LTA, Tom Gibbins, said:
“What we have seen over the past few weeks from an up and coming British tennis player in Emma Raducanu has been nothing short of spectacular. This is such a great moment for our sport and even more so as we look to inspire future generations across the country to take up tennis. Our free LTA Youth Schools Programme was designed to support teachers in moments like this.”
To ensure that teachers are confident in delivering the resources from LTA Youth Schools Programme, upon signing up, The LTA offers training to all participating schools from professional LTA accredited practitioners, with over 4,000 already completing the training. On completion of the 2 hour course, schools will receive a £250 voucher and tennis activity pack.
Dan Smith, teacher at Manchester Road Primary School, who used the resources last year commented on the support LTA Youth has provided for his school, saying:
“LTA Youth Schools has been great for our school. Not only have we received amazing training through the free online course, but the resources that we now have are brilliant and we will continue to use them for years to come. Unlike any other training course, we were also given a £250 voucher so we were able to buy the equipment needed for the lessons.”
For the first time, LTA Youth will be offering a visit from a professional tennis player for new sign ups to the LTA Youth Schools programme as they look to highlight the benefits of tennis in building active lifestyles and key skills for the future.
Sign up today for free, explore the resources and join the active online community of over 10,000 teachers part of the LTA Youth programme.
On Friday 24 September, Emma Raducanu and other British winners at the US Open, Joe Salisbury, Alfie Hewitt and Gordan Reid came together for a special homecoming celebration event – the perfect viewing for pupils looking to get into tennis. Show this video in your next show and tell, where these outstanding tennis stars answer questions live from a local school.
