Montrose Academy | Scottish Rugby Schools Week

17 Mar 2022

Scottish Rugby is committed to growing school and youth rugby across the country and strengthening school-to-club relationships. That's why were are hosting a second installment of Scottish Rugby Schools Week, supported by Saltire Energy from 21-27 March.

By collaborating with their local rugby club, Montrose Academy have been able to grow and develop new offerings for boys and girls to engage with rugby at school, and have launched a programme designed to develop transferable life skills and qualifications through the sport.

The school’s curricular rugby programme called ‘Rugby Achievement Programme’ (RAP) is currently led by P.E teacher, Polly Day.

The RAP programme aims to help and inspire young people develop personal and key life skills through the game of rugby and was launched with support from Development Officer Caroline Campbell (Montrose Rugby Club) and fellow P.E. teacher, Chris Hutton.

“The programme started in 2019 when the school was approached by Stuart Ross (Youth & Schools Partnership Officer at Scottish Rugby), who thought that a partnership with Montrose Rugby Club would be a great way to boost rugby both within the school and the wider Montrose community”, said Polly.

“Our aim has been to increase participation in rugby but also develop the key life skills which rugby encompasses such as resilience, responsibility, teamwork and communication.

“Currently the S1 and S2 RAP runs for two periods a week and the S3 RAP for three periods a week. A range of teachers deliver the RAP including those who teach geography, history and P.E, which I think shows the strength of capacity to deliver rugby within the school.”

S3 pupils from Montrose Academy involved in the RAP programme also support delivery of activities for those in the S1 and S2 programme as a way to contribute towards their SQA Personal Development Award.

Now in its third year of running, RAP has successfully supported S1-3 boys and girls to engage in practical and theory-based lessons which in turn have allowed the young people to develop literacy and numeracy skills in an alternative setting, as well as gain additional qualifications such as the SQA Personal Development Award.

The impact in rugby terms is that pupils, especially girls, are gaining confidence to play contact rugby in a secure curricular environment and as a result, are now representing Montrose Academy in the Angus inter-school festival league.

As part of their engagement with Scottish Rugby Schools Week in the 2022 March instalment, Montrose Academy have coordinated a festival of rugby to take place to expand playing opportunities to more young people. The event which is expected to host over 100 pupils has been organised in part by S3 pupils in the RAP programme as part of their SQA Personal Development Award.