Tennis coach Judy Murray has called for a much bigger presence of women in the sporting workforce as she announced an expansion of a scheme to keep girls active. Murray said sport helps develop leadership, resilience and communication while benefiting youngsters’ physical and mental health, and urged young people to get at least 40 minutes of exercise a day, saying physical literacy is as important as numerical and alphabetical literacy.
Following an investment from Sky, Murray’s Learn to Lead programme will expand from 25 schools to include a further 50. A Sky-commissioned report found girls aged 11-18 miss out on 280 million hours of sport every year compared to boys, and that playing sport as a child is as strong an indicator of future success as earning a university degree.
Learn to Lead, launched in June, targets P6 and P7 girls (10-12 years), training them to run lunchtime and after-school tennis clubs for younger pupils. Schools must have a teacher or activity coordinator to supervise, but the pupils will lead activities, organise sessions and set up equipment. Judy Murray’s team provides training sessions in schools and supplies videos, lesson plans and equipment.
“We started Learn to Lead in June with twenty-five schools. The schools have to have a teacher who is happy to supervise the older girls — primary P6s and P7s — to lead fun lunchtime clubs and after-school clubs, so it’s a great way to learn leadership skills in older girls within a sporting context in the school environment and it’s a great way to introduce little girls to starter tennis,” Murray told Sky Sports.
Murray said the programme aims to build confidence and prepare girls to take on leadership roles, adding: “It’s so much about building confidence in the older girls to lead because we need a much bigger presence of women in the sporting workforce in general. If we can start that process in primary school, where they are comfortable with younger children, then hopefully some of these are our sporting leaders of the future.”
She also highlighted the role of school sport in developing life skills before pupils move to secondary school: leadership opportunities are limited, and her own early experiences captaining school tennis and hockey teams helped her develop communication skills and the ability to get teams working together.
Sky chief sports officer Jonathan Licht said the broadcaster is committed to growing visibility and grassroots participation in women’s sport. “The Game Changing report released earlier this year highlights the vital role that sport plays in developing confidence, communication, and teamwork skills that extend far beyond the court. We’re proud to support Judy Murray’s Learn to Lead initiative to double the number of schools involved, giving more girls the opportunity and resources to engage in sport and help create the next generation of female leaders.”
Learn to Lead builds on Murray’s earlier Miss Hits programme, first introduced in 2014 to encourage young girls into tennis across the UK.