Ellevangskolen is a public school in Aarhus with 850 kids between the age 5 to 16. We have special elite sports classes and currently we have tree full classes and 65 talented sports pupils overall. This varies over time due to the amount of talented sports pupils in the clubs in Aarhus. We are part of a sports talent program in Aarhus together with selected schools in Aarhus, ESAA (Elite Sports Academi Aarhus) and all the elite sports clubs in Aarhus. We also work close together with Team Denmark – the national federation of elite sports and the governmental branch of sports (DIF). Part of being an ESAA-partner is that we secure training for the pupils twice a week in morning. They don’t have school lessons in this period.
We aim for a Dual Career for our talented sports pupils. We work close together with the key organizations mentioned above to create a coherent school day for the kids. It is very important for us that elite sports and kids in talent programs are treated in a social responsible way and the well-being of the pupils is essential.
Our set up for sports pupils is linked with our partner in next step in the Danish school system. It´s important for us, that the pupils experience a coherent progress throughout their life in sports and education.
How do we support Dual Career?
We aim for a close contact between the sports coordinators/counselors and our sports pupils. They all teach the pupils in a large proportion of the time. Our counselors/teachers also have a background in sports themselves. We aim for that because we think this contact and experience creates a better guidance for the pupils. We also work hard to create individual and flexible solutions for our pupils, so they can participate in training camps, international competitions, activities with the national youth team and so forth. This gives them possibility to continue their development in sports. To succeed in this we aim for a close relation to the pupils, their parents, and none the less the coaches. We do that to support a holistic perspective on the pupils Dual Career. We use a lot of energy creating an environment for our students were it is accepted to work hard to reach your Dual Career goals. We create a school were its socially accepted to be good in school and be successful in the field of sports. This environment is made to secure the students can fulfill their potential in both arenas. This demands a close contact with the pupils and a close dialogue with all the key persons surrounding the pupils.
This also creates an environment for pupils were they experience a transfer of values from one arena to the other. This is particular clear in the “ESAA-theme”-curriculum, where we work with values as engagement, persistency and strategies for handling adversity. The teachers are equipped to create this environment. They also play a large role in creating strong unity in the elite sports classes. It´s important for us that the pupils can relate to their classmates and that is one of key arguments in why we keep the sports students together in special sports classes.
Taking part in a sports class course as a sports student can be seen as a special process of creation, where there are demands from the sports class and its actors that the sports students must live up to a standard of commitment and development in both education and elite sports.
When the physical education students are admitted to the sports classes, they are all basically dual recruits. They have been selected because they have the potential to reach the senior elite and because they are willing to commit to the early talent development of elite sports. In terms of schooling, sports students do not have to have special academic abilities, even though an academic profit is considered to make life as a sports student easier to handle. But they must be able and willing to take care of and prioritize their schooling, and most importantly, they must also commit to making an effort in this arena.
However, it turns out to be a challenging development work to stay on track as a sports student and continuously be able to live up to the standard representations of becoming as dual becoming.
Girls who practice elite sports are in a peculiar and paradoxical situation – they are different in a dual sense. Different from the male standards in the elite sports world, and different from the female markers in the surrounding society. This creates a difficult manageable cross-pressure.
From an early age, the girls in the study find that their lives are different from girls outside the sports world. They revolve around a feeling of standing out and having other interests, just as many people see themselves as 'class tourist' at school. The girls express that they are perceived as different from other girls and feel that the expectations they meet from their friends outside the sport are incompatible with their own priorities.
It is typical that girls are more considering dropping out of the talent environments and questions are being asked about their winning mentality, their determination and the ability to compete.
The counsellor needs tools to support students, especially girls in tackling adversity and resilience, through individual action
Our goal is to create tools for the teacher to develop a strong Dual Career identity and to see that the pupils gets the feeling of a coherent day. This gives us a large responsibility in planning the school day and the right framework for the sports pupils. Especially when it comes to individual tutoring, the teacher need more and individual tools.
The task of our sports counselors are:
Picking out the right pupils for the sports classes
Developing a high quality framework for Dual Career classes that accommodate all the demands from the school laws and the municipal demands in the school area.
Coordination between clubs and ESAA
Individual work with the pupils to help them reach their goals
Work with Dual Career and synergies between sports and education
Counseling pupils, parents, colleagues, clubs and coaches.
Planning and teaching ESAA-theme curriculum