Roles and Partnerships

The “School Within A School” initiative is made possible through the close collaboration of SBA and STTA. Senior officials at both National Sports Associations (NSAs) are delighted that such a “school day” can be arranged to allow for optimal training and development; hence, both NSAs selected athletes for the programme based on their potential.

SBA selected the student-athletes as part of its National Intermediate Squad (NIS). SBA will have two NIS squads distinguished by the different training times. The SBA-SSP NIS will train in the mornings and afternoons at SSP; the SBA-NIS which comprises players from the mainstream schools will train in the evenings and weekends.

STTA’s choice student-athletes for this programme are in Secondary 1 and Secondary 2.

The two NSAs have drawn up detailed training programmes and long-term plans for their selected athletes.

Mrs Deborah Tan, Principal of Singapore Sports School, said: “It is very important that Singapore Sports School and the NSAs commit to our respective roles in this programme. It must be a revolving door for entry and exit from the programme — the latter at major exit points such that the student-athletes can determine and exercise alternative academic options if necessary. This programme can only be better than anything that we have tried before to help our student-athletes to excel. We will only know for sure when we give it a chance.”

Expected Outcomes

The “School Within A School” project hopes to see its student-athletes reach top-100 world ranking standards from 2015.

With SBA and STTA respectively, the intermediate achievement milestones have also been identified — top-8 placing in significant international junior tournaments, YOG, major games, etc.

The student-athletes in the programme are expected to achieve good academic results — attaining the Diploma in Sports and Leisure Management and even progressing on to various local and overseas universities.

Mr Seah Poh Chua, Director of Academics, said: “The educational runway is at least seven years and can be up to 10 years — hopefully long enough for the talents to take-off in their pursuit of sporting excellence.”