In schools, participation in sport is rarely short of attention. It features in inspection conversations, parent feedback, pupil voice surveys, and departmental reviews. When numbers dip, particularly in the middle and senior years, the explanations often feel familiar. Academic pressure increases. Interests diversify. Competition becomes less appealing. Students are said to lose motivation.
These explanations describe what is happening, but they rarely explain why.
The more uncomfortable truth is this. Students rarely leave sports because they dislike sport itself. They leave because they no longer enjoy the experience of sport as it is delivered to them. That experience is shaped week after week by coaching.
Participation isn’t the problem we think it is:
Participation is often framed as a motivation issue. Schools respond by adjusting timetables, introducing new competitions, or offering incentives. These strategies can help in the short term, but they rarely address the root cause.
Sport remains one of the most powerful learning environments that schools provide. Young people still enjoy games, challenge, social connection, and competition. What they disengage from is sport that consistently feels:
- Overly controlled and adult-led
- Repetitive or predictable
- Disconnected from real game play
- Focused on compliance rather than learning
When participation declines, it is tempting to look outward at students, parents, or societal change. In reality, the most influential factors often sit much closer to home. They sit in the daily experiences created by the adults leading sessions.
What students are actually opting out of:
When students step away from school sport, they are rarely rejecting physical activity altogether. More often, they are opting out of environments that no longer feel rewarding or meaningful.
Over time, students disengage from programmes where:
- Decision-making sits almost entirely with the coach
- Drills dominate sessions with little transfer to games
- Mistakes are highlighted publicly rather than explored
- Confidence and enjoyment decline across the term
In independent schools, where students often have a wide range of co-curricular alternatives, tolerance for poor experiences is low. If sport consistently feels like something done to them rather than with them, students simply choose something else.
This is not a reflection of students being less resilient or less committed. It is a reflection of environments that have not evolved to meet their needs.
The hidden workforce challenge facing directors of sport
Behind every participation conversation sits a workforce challenge that is rarely acknowledged openly.
Directors of Sport and Sports Coordinators are typically responsible for managing a diverse coaching workforce that may include:
- Full-time teachers with varying coaching confidence
- Part-time specialists working across multiple schools
- Early career staff learning on the job
- External coaches with strong technical expertise but limited pedagogical grounding
Despite this complexity, expectations around student experience and participation remain high. Time for structured support, observation, and feedback is often limited. Professional development is frequently delivered through isolated CPD sessions, with little opportunity for sustained follow-up or shared reflection.
The result is a system where coaching quality, and therefore student experience, varies significantly depending on who is leading the session.
Schools are now using UPskill to support their workforce with flexible and continuous learning across the academic year. Try it for 5 days FREE here.
Why good intentions aren’t enough
Most coaches in independent schools care deeply about their students and want them to enjoy sport. The problem is not commitment. It is consistency.
Without a shared framework for coaching, staff naturally default to what feels familiar. This is often shaped by their own sporting background, previous experiences, or a desire to maintain control and order. In busy school environments, this can lead to approaches that feel safe for the coach but are limiting for the learner.
Over time, these well-intentioned practices can lead to:
-
Predictable sessions
-
Reduced player ownership
-
Limited learning transfer
-
Gradual disengagement from less confident students
The issue is not effort. It is the absence of a system that helps coaches understand how to design engaging learning environments, not just what to coach.
Participation is a coaching consistency issue:
Schools with strong participation cultures tend to share one defining characteristic. Students experience a consistent quality of coaching regardless of sport, age group, or individual coach.
This consistency does not come from identical sessions or rigid lesson plans. It comes from shared principles such as:
-
How games are used as learning tools
-
How challenge and inclusion are balanced
-
how player voice is encouraged
-
How success is defined beyond results
Where participation declines, inconsistency is usually the underlying issue. Students may enjoy sport one term and disengage the next, not because they have changed, but because the experience has.
Participation, therefore, is not simply a student choice. It is an outcome shaped by the coherence of a school’s coaching approach.
The director of sport as a coach developer:
The role of the Director of Sport in schools has evolved significantly. While logistics, fixtures, and staffing remain important, the modern role increasingly centres on people development.
Directors of Sport now influence:
- How coaches plan and structure sessions
- How learning is prioritised alongside performance
- How staff are supported across the season
- How consistent experiences are created for students
This shift requires coach development to be seen as a core leadership responsibility rather than an optional extra. When coaching quality is left to chance, participation outcomes tend to follow the same path.
What an effective coach development system looks like:
Effective coach development in schools is rarely about adding more meetings or increasing workload. It is about clarity, support, and continuity.
Strong systems typically:
- Provide practical guidance that fits busy schedules
- Create a shared language around learning and engagement
- Support reflection without fear of judgment
- Develop coaches over time rather than in one-off moments
When coach development is embedded into the fabric of the department, consistency improves. Coaches feel more confident. Students experience greater continuity. Participation becomes a natural outcome rather than a forced target.
Where UPskill supports independent schools
UPskill was designed to support Directors of Sport, Sports Coordinators and Heads of PE who are responsible for developing a workforce, not just managing a timetable.
It helps schools to:
- Establish shared coaching principles
- Support new and experienced coaches consistently
- Align coaching practice with modern, games-based pedagogy
- Make coach development visible and sustainable
UPskill is not about fixing coaches. It is about creating the conditions in which coaches can succeed, and students want to stay involved in sport.
The question school leaders should be asking:
Instead of repeatedly asking how to increase participation, school leaders may find greater impact by asking a different question.
What experiences are our coaches consistently creating, and for whom?
Participation figures reflect what has already happened. Coaching quality shapes what happens next. When leaders focus on the latter, the former often takes care of itself.
Final thought...
Students in schools are not disengaging from sport because they no longer value it. They disengage when experiences feel repetitive, controlling, or disconnected from their needs as learners.
Schools that invest in coach development do more than improve sessions. They create cultures where students feel challenged, supported, and motivated to stay involved.
Participation does not disappear overnight. It erodes when systems fail to support the people shaping the experience. The schools that recognise this, and act on it, are the ones where sport continues to thrive.
Discover how UPskill can support your workforce here.
Share:
Empowering Students, Empowering Staff: How UPskill is helping