Funding Fencing in your School – Flexibly and Innovatively
Making fencing make financial sense; fitting around you and your budget.
The We Are Forging Futures fencing programme is easy to introduce and has great benefits across a school. It also only costs around £10 per pupil per year for a full programme including equipment. However, We Are Forging Futures – in association with British Fencing – is very aware of the financial challenges facing schools, and that’s why the programme is designed to be affordable and flexible, working to a school’s budgets and timescales with the option of monthly, quarterly, or annual payments.
“What’s really good about this is we’ve got massive backup from British Fencing.”
Doug Keast, Assistant Principal and Director of Sport, Crown Hills Community College, Leicester
Training costs from as little as £25, with a free app that will allow you to start introducing fencing and scale up when funding allows. More advanced courses are adaptable and can be delivered to multiple members of staff, creating a pool of experts to deliver the sport. Introductory equipment will cost between £100 and £500 but can also be built up over time.
British Fencing has gone beyond other sports by creating the We Are Forging Futures brand and making it easy to use fencing in different ways across the school day: in games lessons, enrichment activities, after-school provision and in PSHEE lessons. This means that schools can bring together sources such as the Primary PE and Sports Premium, PESSPA (PE, school sport and physical activity) funds, PTA fundraising, parental contributions for wrap-around care, and funds allocated to general teaching to fund fencing training and equipment.
Taking one of these areas as an example, the We Are Forging Futures team will work with your school’s PTA to make the case for fencing as an inclusive activity that brings communities together and can make a real difference to individuals. Case studies from other schools show the impact that the programme can make in areas including confidence and engagement with wider learning.
“It’s about providing those opportunities for the children to access things that they wouldn’t have previously been able to do.”
Zoe Howarth, Class teacher and SENCo, Welton St Mary’s Primary School, Lincolnshire
Once your school is involved in fencing, the flexibility continues with engaging resources that draw on inspiring areas from well outside sport, including topics all children can find fascinating such as pirates and space travel! British Fencing is also highly responsive and will help you when pupils ask new questions, or you want to develop the programme further.
“The overwhelming message that I took away from the training was that of inclusivity and that it is a sport which should be – and is – available to all, regardless of upbringing or ability.”
Dan Hatfield, St Giles CE Primary School, Willenhall
Find out more and begin your fencing journey at school by booking a 1:1 introductory Zoom session with the team here, or alternatively email [email protected].
