The programme integrates advanced disciplines – such as sports nutrition, psychology, and strength and conditioning – into the school curriculum to support both general student wellbeing and elite athletic pathways.

Please share a brief background of your innovation.

The British School of Bahrain launched its unique and specialist High Performance Programme for Sport. The programme helps every child to find their place in sport, whether or not they make the first team, instilling the challenges, discipline and joy that Physical Education brings.

The approach of the school and the programme is centred around the philosophy of ‘PE for all, Sport for some’, tailoring pathways towards elite and professional sport for the most talented athletes. The programme introduces specialist aspects into the curriculum that support athletic development, which are not usually taught at the school level.

These include strength and conditioning, sports nutrition, psychology for high performance and recovery techniques – all essential components for achieving peak athletic performance. Students who represent the school as BSB Bulldogs via the various squads receive additional coaching in these areas alongside their sport-specific coaching.

The High Performance Programme isn’t about instant results or being a star athlete today. It’s about laying the groundwork and supporting the marginal gains that help young people develop confidence, resilience, and a lifelong passion for play. The programme really comes into its own for the highest performing athletes – those who are already competing at national and international level across a range of sports. These students have additional curriculum time, offering high support coupled with high challenge, dedicated to developing each of the key areas.

This provides a 360-degree digitised and trackable tailored programme centred around individual needs. The school also provides flexible support within the wider curriculum to allow this group of talented athletes the time to train, compete and improve, working in partnership with their external coaches. The students are supported towards professional athletic career routes and sports scholarships for university.

How was the innovation planned?

The innovation mirrors the academic excellence already well-established at the British School of Bahrain. The school is renowned for its holistic curriculum that focuses on the three key pillars of Academics, Sports and the Arts.

The curriculum at BSB is shaped for lifelong success and building the foundations for an aspirational high-performance mindset, and this innovation was therefore a natural next step in further enhancing the already outstanding provision. Partnering strong vision, real-world sports development know-how and the desire to establish a nationally recognisable Centre of Excellence for Sport that supports the delivery of an Olympic pathway across Bahrain, the High Performance Programme was planned with the athlete in mind.

The athlete is and will always be the priority aligned with the school’s family-first ethos, where people are always the key focus. The team at BSB drew on their own expertise in planning the programme as well as the expertise of a wide range of external sports professionals, and the range of experience and opportunity that is afforded to them as part of the Inspired Education Group, a global group of premium schools.

What were the challenges faced during implementation?

In order to provide world-class elite sporting opportunities coupled with highly specialist provision usually reserved for students studying at university level, the challenge for the school was to provide world-class facilities to match the provision. This challenge has been overcome through the construction of our new state-of-the art Senior School Campus, conveniently located adjacent to our existing campus.

This new facility will open during the next academic year and will provide unrivalled specialist sports facilities and spaces, including a full-size FIFA grade football pitch, a new Sports Hall, multi-purpose Sports courts, a strength and conditioning gym, athletics track, 8-lane swimming pool and more! These spaces will help cement BSB’s position as a Centre of Excellence for Sports and Sports Science.

Give us a brief assessment of your results.

Students engaged on the High Performance Programme have already benefitted from a range of inspiring seminars and workshops from professional world-class athletes, including footballer Kalidou Koulibaly, boxer Amir Khan, rugby players Kelsey Jones and Lizzie Goulden, and UK Strongman Champion Emma Grunnill. This has been coupled with specialist sessions in our Sports Nutrition Lab as well as dedicated Strength and Conditioning training.

Although the programme is still in its infancy, we are already seeing great progress from the students who are tracked in the core components of power, speed and strength. We are proud to have such high-calibre students as part of the programme, including Bahrain’s Number 1-ranked U18 Tennis champion and Bahrain’s 800m freestyle swimming record holder.

In hindsight, what were the most valuable lessons learned while implementing theinnovation? Could things have been done differently?

To date, there is nothing that we would change; we view the development of the High Performance Programme as an ongoing collaborative process between school PE staff, external coaches and specialists, students and their parents.

The programme will continue to be co-constructed and adapted based on the personal needs of each student. This dynamic and responsive approach will allow the school to continue to offer the truly personalised provision it is well known for, ensuring that our students thrive in whatever path they choose.