A day in the life of school sports management

We spoke with Bradley Tennant and Harvey Milne about what it is like to manage an interchangeable sports venue.

As someone who works across several different sporting sites, Bradley started by explaining how working in a school environment is different from other venues: "Obviously, the main difference is the multitude of sports and managing them all at the same time, across four seasons. It means the renovation time for each sport is a lot smaller."

"Most places would have downtime at the end of a season before renovating the pitch/surface, whilst we're straight into cricket.

When asked about the biggest challenge from one sport to another, it was clear which sports take the most adaptation; Bradley answered: "In terms of the easiest change, it is football to rugby, and the worst - rugby to cricket. Coming into those spring months, the grass is going wild and we're hacking it down. We have to collect and remove those clippings because they will slow the ball down for cricket, by bouncing and hitting lumps of grass - which obviously isn't good for play. We have Berkshire County level team who play here, so there is a standard which has to be met - which is even more added pressure."

Harvey highlighted the management structure away from sport: "We have created meadows to encourage biodiversity, but also that means fewer mowing areas, and less machine wear equals less maintenance and less time in the office ordering fuel etc. We still maintain the woodland areas as well as smaller tasks, such as tidying around the car parks if required. We try and help each other out where we can, but there are many aspects of the job that take you away from the sports field."

Left: Harvey Milne Senior Groundsman, Crosfields School and Right: Bradley Tenant International Greenkeepers and Groundsman

When asked about working around the student break times, Harvey said: "The children have set breaks and lunches. If it's raining, they won't be outside, but that also means that we probably can't undertake certain jobs too."

Bradley added: "Just this morning, we were hedging the car park which doubles up as a playground for the year two children. There's no way near enough time in one of those gaps between breaks to do that during term time, so that becomes a half term job. Our aim is to provide the best facilities for the children, but also not be a hindrance and be in their way."

As an industry which can sometimes be misunderstood, Bradley and Harvey share the same view surrounding the education of grounds management. "Education and science surrounding their environment would really give students something to think about when they're out there on the pitch. For example, it rained yesterday and there were clippings on the pitch - why was that?" Bradley said.

Harvey summarised: "It builds up respect as well. If children are educated about the industry and the skill involved from an early age, the industry will then get more recognition and hopefully recruitment uptake."

Director of Sport - Gareth Edwards

The grounds team at Crosfields School works closely with the PE and Games department to understand and provide playing surfaces that meet the requirements of different sports. The sports that use natural turf are football, rugby, cricket and athletics. Crosfields' coaching philosophy in football is based on exploiting space on the pitch and encouraging a fast-paced passing and moving game. This requires a smooth, true surface with shorter grass than is needed for rugby when the grass length is longer to enable the durability of pitches in muddier, colder conditions. Summer brings cricket and athletics and the need for surfaces that are kept short with consistent grass coverage on the athletics track and cricket outfields. It is essential for the grounds department to be working with teaching staff throughout the year to provide the correct surfaces to enable teaching and learning to succeed, and high-quality sport to be possible.