Phase Two
Welcome to the ek robotics Sports Campus!
The ek robotics Sports Campus – open from September 2021 – is a £3m Sports Campus designed to inspire everyone that an active lifestyle is for them. It comprises a floodlit 3G pitch, a VIVA fitness suite, a Mind & Body Zone, and our Racelogic Sports Lab harnessing technology to bring together the worlds of science and sport. The ek robotics Sports Campus is used by the school during the day, and available to the community during evenings, weekends and school holidays.
The ek robotics Sports Campus has been funded by corporate sponsors, charitable trusts & foundations, fundraising, and individual philanthropy. Thank you to everyone that has enabled this project to be delivered, including the words of encouragement and inspiration from our Sporting Heroes.
Video of celebration and thanks
We shared this video at our Opening Ceremony in November 2021 and shared it around the world to all our supporters who were unable to attend in person. Please watch to get a sense of what we have achieved together.
Messages from supporters of the Sports Campus
Not all our supporters were able to attend our Opening Ceremony – but wanted to express their congratulations and encouragement with us. See their messages here:
Our Sports Campus Vision...
*A bright, friendly place where people feel safe and supported to be active
*A place where technology inspires activity
*A place which encourages personal goal setting not competitive exercise
*A place where participation and progress, not just achievement, are celebrated
*A place where physical activity and mental health and wellbeing are practised and nurtured
We want to inspire everyone to be more active, and provide an innovative gateway for community education, by providing opportunities to learn from our network of sports and wellbeing specialists via a free programme of lectures and seminars, all under one roof. Being active directly leads to better mental wellbeing, and the new building will enable everyone to value the importance of that relationship.
Please take a look around:
VIVA Fitness Suite
Our large, 112m2 fitness suite is designed to deliver a fun and friendly environment for all our users to tackle their health goals. The gym has plenty of cardio machines including rowing machines, bicycles, and running machines, plus fixed and free weights sections, and a 10m sprint practice track in the centre of the room. Designed to enable users of all ages and abilities to easily embark on fitness activities, the gym uses the latest technology to allow everyone to follow a personalised exercise programme. Help is always on hand, with advice and usage instructions accessible wirelessly from info hotspots built into the walls and equipment, and from our very own specially-trained gym instructors. Floor to ceiling windows overlooking the pitch flood the gym with light and make the most of the stunning countryside views, making it a bright, welcoming, positive and fun place for us all to visit and enjoy.
Mind and Body Zone
The Mind & Body Zone is an 80m2 space for wellbeing activities, yoga and relaxation classes, as well as some dance. With a beautiful natural wooden floor, white walls, large windows and a calm, peaceful vibe, this space is designed to make us move mindfully, stretch gently, breathe deeply and think clearly. The room will also host a new sports science lecture programme, allowing members of the school and community to attend free lectures by visiting specialists from the worlds of sport, nutrition, psychology and science, encouraging us to exercise and stretch both body and mind.
Racelogic Sports Lab
Our Sports Lab, sponsored by Racelogic, takes up the whole of the bottom floor of the Sports Campus. Inspired by visits to professional sports clubs, a large, open plan teaching space leads through a glass partition wall to a suite of high tech sports analysis and virtual reality equipment: this area is designed to enable us to put key elements of the sports science curriculum into practice for the very first time. With access straight from the pitch, we’ll be able to video activity on the pitch (and eventually in other outdoor and indoor sports areas) and instantly watch playback on large screens and analyse performance, using the IdeaPaint wall for collaborative learning . We’ll be able to go a step further too, and actually learn how to code the activity on pitch and use the data to learn better techniques and improve our play. The Sports Lab will proactively motivate everyone to understand the role of technology in helping us to learn how to move more, and how to move well, and will encourage us to set goals and measure performance. Importantly, it will also teach us that there are many careers in sport off the pitch, and will inspire the next generation of sports technologists.
3G Pitch
Our full size, FA approved 3G pitch is transforming sport at The Royal Latin. Funded thanks to a generous grant from the Football Foundation, the pitch will be used for a range of sports and can be used in all but the very worst of weather. Best of all, no more mud! So we can be active all year round, and into the evenings too, thanks to the fantastic floodlights. Football, touch rugby, lacrosse, plus general fitness, skills and tactics training for a range of sports, the 3G pitch will be used for it all – and we’ll be able to host lots more fixtures and tournaments, and invite clubs, academies and our sporting heroes to come and join in!
Find out more:
Community Use
The Sports Campus will be available for use by the community every evening and throughout weekends and school holidays. In addition:
- Primary school children will benefit from our outreach programme, including extra-curricular Sports Fairs run by our staff/student volunteers
- Children from a local special school will have access to protected sessions to enable them a rare and vital opportunity for children with Special Educational Needs to experience new ways to be active in a safe place
- Members of small local volunteer-run sports clubs with limited facilities will come together to be active indoors or on our all weather pitch, increasing motivation and supporting social cohesion
- Retired members of our community will benefit from sessions such as tailored gym sessions/walking football/rugby, to encourage activity and ease loneliness
If you know of a community group which could benefit from using the Sports Campus, please get in touch with us at RLS600@royallatin.org To book Sports Campus facilities for your club or for private use, please visit our lettings pages.
Lillingstone Community Lecture Programmme
As an exciting addition to the existing Lillingstone Lectures held in the Discovery Centre, The Sports Campus will host a programme of Sports Science Lectures, also sponsored by the Lillingstone Trust. The new lectures will be held in the Mind & Body Zone, enabling the community to meet (free of charge) our network of experts from all over the UK in the fields of sport, nutrition and physical/mental health, to learn first hand from their experience, and to take home ideas that they can implement in their own lives.
To see details of forthcoming Sports Campus Community Lectures, please see here: www.royallatin.org/lillingstone-lectures
To suggest a lecture topic or speaker, please email RLS600@royallatin.org
Coaching, Training, and Careers in Sport
The Sports Campus will allow students to experience being active in an enjoyable and more diverse and interesting way, with greatly improved curriculum continuity. It will also create other opportunities:
Improved Opportunities: The Sports Campus will offer access to different pathways and training opportunities within sport, beyond the role of performer. The new facilities will help the development of students in partnership with National Governing Bodies, academies and satellite clubs, as well as allowing us to develop our links for all students with local providers/teams. These links will provide training opportunities for both staff and students.
Inspiring the Next Generation of Teachers: as an established centre for School Centred Initial Teacher Training, this facility will transform the training we can offer to future generations of teachers, who will go on to teach PE at schools right across the UK. We’ll also offer to host other training for established teachers.
Supporting Volunteering: we’ll host training courses for grass roots sports coaches and volunteers, enabling them to be trained and put their learnings into practice in the same facility. We’ll train our young volunteers (Latin Leaders) to enable them to provide peer to peer support to others, including specific training modules such as the MIND training to support more vulnerable people to exercise.
Employment & Vocational Training: the Sports Campus will be used to deliver a range of training to staff, including teaching, support staff and premises staff. In addition, we’ll train new staff appointed to the project, including young people.
600 Campaign Quick Links:
* Phase One * Phase Three * Corporate Partners * Charitable Trusts & Foundations * Individual Philanthropy * Fundraising
* Volunteering * Make a Donation * Contact the 600 Campaign Team
