OLYMPIC swimmer star Ben Proud gave his seal of approval to the new Plymouth Studio School building when he visited to meet the school’s high performance sports students.
The school, which opened in 2015, has recently moved into a new state-of-the-art building on the campus of the University of St Mark and St John at Derriford.
The school offers 14-19 year-olds the chance to combine their studies with a high performance sporting programme.
Young Olympic hopefuls already attending the school include divers Matthew Dixon and Cody Powell-Tucket, international modern pentathlete Kay Bryson, England under-18 rugby player Lizzie Cole, GB underwater hockey player Chloe Stoneman and taekwondo stars Tate Budge and Rhys Roffey.
Jon Rhodes, elite sports Psychologist and head of sports performance for Plymouth Studio School said: “It’s fantastic for our students to get a chance to meet with Ben and to see the results that hard work and focus on training can bring.
“As an Olympian, we also wanted him to pass on the sporting values of integrity, courage, teamwork, resilience and respect to our students which are essential both to their sporting and personal development.
“The need for early development and focus on the individual athlete is key when it comes to developing sporting champions of the future and giving them an opportunity to do this within their school timetable is exactly what we aim to do here.”
The high performance sports programme combines the school’s state of the art sports equipment and facilities with those on-site at Marjon, together with expert coaching and sports psychology to help each student maximisetheir individual sporting talent as part of their school timetable.
Double Commonwealth Games champion Ben Proud, who is a student at the University of St Mark and St John, said: “The school provides a great environment to start nurturing the next generation of sporting champions and professionals from as early as Year 10 and an opportunity to progress on to Marjon to continue developing their sports performance and careers.”
