January 20th 2026 brought us our first ever Delta Sports Conference to aid the launch of our new sports strategy. Every academy across the trust was represented by Principals, Heads of Academy, Heads of PE, Sports Coordinators and more. With a variety of speakers both from within the Trust and external partners, it was truly a day for everyone to come together and discuss the benefits of making sport equal for everyone.

Richard Brooke, Executive Principal, launched the new sports strategy that will see pupils and students across the trust benefit from further opportunities to develop their knowledge, skills and experience in sport and more importantly, will support our colleagues to foster a culture of participation, inclusion and fun. The ‘Sporting Pathways’ pyramid shows the different levels to sport across the Trust, with the main focus of the launch being ‘Enjoy’ and ‘Learn’.

To kick off the conference, we shared a series of sporting achievements from across the Trust, shining a light on the talented students and pupils in our academies, reminding us that we have some extraordinarily talented athletes in our school communities. Celebrations mentioned in this showcase included:

We discussed opportunities for our students outside of the classroom such as Dallowgill Environmental Education Centre, which focuses on helping teach our primary pupils life skills while also supporting smaller DofE expeditions, and Patterdale, which is on track to open in September 2026, and will provide even more space for DofE expeditions in the Silver and Gold bracket, as well as sports such as canoeing, sailing, abseiling and even more!

Key focus points discussed throughout the conference, evidencing our commitment to the new Sporting Pathways strategy, promised that this strategy is not about ‘OR’, it’s an ‘AND’ signifying that we will no lose focus on what we already do so well, this is an added extra. Commitment to the strategy included discussion around:

Jason Robinson OBE, our key not speaker, shared his journey from a challenging childhood to sporting success, reflecting on how a teacher inspired him and positively impacted his life. Growing up on a council estate in Leeds, moving out at 16, and later becoming a legend in both rugby codes, and ultimately becoming a Rugby World Cup winner, Jason’s story reinforced a powerful message echoed throughout the day: that every child has the potential to be whoever they want to be.

Jason also spoke about the Jason Robinson Foundation, the non-profit organisation he founded to help remove barriers to participation in sports by providing children with sports kits, food, and access to sporting opportunities, regardless of background. The video below shows a recent visit by Jason and his team to Pheasant Bank, one of our academies, highlighting the positive impact of this work in action.

Jason remained with us throughout the conference, taking time to engage with a group of students from Rossington All Saints Academy and observe demonstrations of specialist sports equipment provided by TFC. We are proud to now be working in partnership with Jason through the Jason Robinson Foundation, continuing to support academies across the Trust in developing pupils’ confidence, ambition, and sporting potential.

Aligning the curriculum across the Trust and focusing on the KS3 timetables will allow for cross-academy collaboration. Alongside this an audit of all of current resources, facilities and expertise across the Trust (with the intent to then invest in missing sports equipment, facilities and resources), will ensure we are organised and efficient in delivery. Academy representatives were excited when Richard organised our academies into sports regions (4 secondary groups & 7 primary groups), encouraging mixed academy teams to play against other regions in Delta.

By the end of this session, it was revealed that the first generation sports for this new strategy are rugby union and table tennis, with plans to include more sports over time. In addition, plans were also revealed for regional competitions as well as national and international sports tours in the near future.

During the conference, we also got the chance to hear Joe Lydon talk about a huge opportunity for students across the Trust.

In Summer 2027, APEX will be hosting a Rugby Festival at Millfield School in Somerset, where two Delta teams (1 x boys and 1 x girls) will attend and represent our Trust . The teams will be collated from across the Trust, giving everyone an opportunity to attend the event.

We then got to see a representation of what the pyramid looks like for primary PE

Enjoy – Provide opportunities for all children to enjoy physical activities: playground play-based activities.​

Learn – There is a clearly aligned curriculum model for all students to learn basic skills and core foundational knowledge of key sports; ensuring they are ready for their next steps.​

Compete – Pupils can complete and are supported through a tiered competition structure where adaptions are implemented enabling all to succeed. ​

Represent – Enable pupils to represent their academy and Trust beyond internal competitions locally, regionally and nationally regardless of their background or financial means. ​

Excel –  Our structures and links to professional clubs and Governing bodies support our most talented individuals and teams to perform on a national and international stage. ​

During the comfort breaks, and lunch, staff were encouraged to take part in different activities scattered around the auditorium, creating networking opportunities whilst encouraging participation and enjoyment. Colleagues got involved in competitions, even competing against world cup champion with the successor was revealed in the afternoon. They also had the opportunity to speak with Anthony about the different equipment our pupils/ student can use through TFC which included demos from a group of students from Rossington All Saints Academy followed by the opportunity to try some of the equipment out for themselves.

Anthony Browne’s ‘Movement IQ’ informed colleagues about the opportunities for our pupils/students through our partnership with TFC. He talked about his background and upbringing, how he dreamed up TFC whilst also working in the Fire Brigade. Since then he has gone on to gain clients from professional/ semi-professional sports providing breakthrough athlete development.

Anthony walked us through the Delta Athlete Performance Pathway and what that will look like for our pupils/students, in particular how it will:

The pathway will include a range of move sessions including:

Anthony walked us through different ‘Nurture’ and ‘Develop’ sessions that seamlessly incorporate inclusivity amongst a variety of skillsets in Pupils/ students. Allowing them to compete with people on the same level as them.

We gained a flavour of what we can expect throughout the partnership:

In this session, Anna, John and Johnny asked teachers to think about how we can improve our curriculum and enrichment offer so we include more and exclude less in PE, how we ensure pupils of all abilities can participate and compete, how we ensure we recognise the achievements of pupils at all lessons and how we instil in our pupils a life-long love of sport.

To paint the picture in a clearer light, Chloe showed some statistics of what sport looks like across the trust today:

Katy referenced some shocking statistics about the impact of sports poverty and people living in deprived communities, sharing that they less active and are at a higher risk of health problems and social exclusion.

Katy also talked in detail about the financial barriers to sport and how that has been negatively impacted by the cost-of-living crisis. Things such as sports kit, club fees and transport are major reasons why children from poorer families often miss out on sport.

Katy brought her session full circle, linking sporting poverty back to our vision to ‘disrupt the system’ by breaking the barriers so that everyone has equal opportunities

We are committed to developing an exceptional and inclusive sporting offer.

This conference brought enlightenment and inspiration to all those who attended. Everyone in the room was filled with ideas by the end of the day about what we can do collectively as a trust to improve the enjoyment and inclusivity of sport for our pupils/students.

A special thank you to all of our external speakers who not only attended the event, but formed a professional partnership and offer continuous support across all academies in the Trust.