28/08/2025
AltSport quietly disappeared after we positively impacted the lives of thousands of people across all walks of life, from children and young adults through our sports clubs and holiday programs, to families at our Hunted games that took place across the country in Leicestershire, Newcastle and Hertfordshire, to seniors in the care homes we worked in and still maintain to this day under Andrew Hill Personal Training.
Over the last couple of years, I've found myself frequently reflecting on the positive impact we've had on the community. Today, all that's left of what we built is our foodbank whose mission it is to reduce food inequality by supplying several youth hostels throughout the East Midlands with food parcels for their residents, working in partnership with Neighbourly and their partners including Aldi UK, Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury's, we also offer a signposting service for those needing support with budgeting, debt, welfare, housing and homelessness, domestic violence and addiction. As well, we have a number of community volunteers who work in neighbourhoods helping tenants to manage their tenancies and provide assistance in several aspects in order to maintain their independence.
Each time I reflect on our business, I find myself considering starting up all over again. We served the purpose we initially had with respect of promoting social cohesion in the wake of lock down but separate to that is all the fun we and our players had and the opportunities presented to us by Leicester City Council and Leicestershire County Council, Melton Borough Council and charities across the country to further the positive impact we had made so far.
Today, we live in a strange old world. Four years on since lock down was lifted and despite the impact we've made, my colleagues who still work closely with schools tell me that whilst progress has been made, there are still serious concerns about the delay we witnessed first hand after more than a year of social isolation and remote learning. A report by Save the Children UK reveals that 90% of teachers believe this delay has been caused exclusively by the deprivation of social opportunities in children during their formative years. What AltSport did when we were running our sports clubs, holiday activity and food programs, teaching the next generation of entrepreneurs and playing the world's largest game of hide and seek (self-certified of course) was prove that we can cure this.
This isn't the only report that's concerning. Whilst learning gaps have reduced, the National Audit Office reports that primary reading and maths deficits are still higher than pre-covid levels and persistent educational inequality has remained significantly higher than pre-covid levels.
Key challenges facing the education sector and students today includes poor mental health, inadequate social skills and poor behavioural recovery. Almost a quarter of 8-16 year old meet the criteria for a probable mental health disorder, almost double what it was in 2017 and the number of school isolations, suspensions and exclusions have sky rocketed since we returned to school.
The number of children who are persistently absent from school and the number of children requiring additional support at school has also doubled from pre-covid levels.
The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill (2025) aims to boost support in areas like attendance, safeguarding, and provision of breakfast clubs addressing some of the structural challenges schools and their pupils face, but does this go far enough?
I'm painting a very bleak picture, and this on a national basis but we feel it in our community, our children are suffering because of these problem in society since the pandemic and this is where I was before we started the business, recognising the problems affecting our communities.
While the pandemic has left a lasting scar on education and community wellbeing, the experience of AltSport proves that with creativity, collaboration and a focus on bringing people together, we can rebuild stronger foundations and make significant improvements. The challenges may be significant, but they are not insurmountable and with the right support, our children and communities can thrive once again.
AltSport once delivered wide-ranging community benefits through sports clubs, holiday activities, food programmes and care home work, but today its legacy continues mainly through a foodbank supporting youth hostels and vulnerable tenants. Reflecting on this, it’s clear that while some progress has been made since COVID, schools and young people are still grappling with deep challenges including persistent learning gaps, rising inequalities, poor mental health, social and behavioural delays, absenteeism, and increased demand for SEND support. Government efforts such as the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill aim to address these issues, but the reality is that many children are still suffering the long-term consequences of the pandemic, highlighting the vital role of community-led initiatives like AltSport in helping to rebuild cohesion and opportunity.
If someone told me it's all well and good saying all of this and then asked what's the solution, I’d suggest it requires a layered approach that brings schools, communities, government and the private sector together, rather than expecting schools alone to carry the burden, in other words, simply throwing money at schools and additional tuition simply isn't going to fix the problem and the Department for Education should take note.
The ONLY way out of this hole is:
1. Community-led programmes: What AltSport achieved shows that structured play, sports, mentoring, holiday activities and food initiatives can plug the social and wellbeing gaps that schools aren’t resourced to fill. Expanding these kinds of grassroots projects could have a direct positive impact on mental health, behaviour and social skills. We know this because we witnessed it amongst thousands of children.
2. Targeted academic recovery: Tutoring, smaller class sizes in key subjects especially for children who experience lower attention or increased anxiety or exhibit disruptive behaviour in larger class sizes, and catch-up interventions need to be directed especially at disadvantaged pupils. Without narrowing the attainment gap, inequality simply compounds year after year making the problem even worse, this is especially true for those children coming from low social and economic backgrounds and other disadvantaged pupils.
3. Mental health and wellbeing embedded in education: Every school should have proper counselling provision and wellbeing staff, not just overstretched teachers doubling roles or first aiders who have attended a one day training but real, qualified counsellors. Early intervention prevents behavioural issues spiralling into exclusions and keeps more kids in school.
4. Support for families: Food insecurity, housing instability, debt and domestic struggles all feed into poor school attendance and performance. Strengthening foodbanks, breakfast clubs, parental guidance and financial support services is just as much an education strategy as curriculum reform. This means ensuring children are well fed at school and not simply given a "food allowance" of £1.20 which barely covers the cost of a portion of chips or a couple of slices of toast.
5. Reimagining education: A broader, more relevant curriculum (including vocational and entrepreneurial pathways) would engage children who are otherwise disillusioned, while also reducing the reliance on high-stakes exams that many struggle to recover from post-Covid. There's a lot of arguments for and against schools turning into academies but what I've seen personally is that whilst we have all of these academies popping up, abandoned and neglected are the vocational opportunities many children who aren't academically minded excel at which aren't always delivered by academies but are in managed schools. The government must review the national curriculum to ensure it is relevant and suitable to all students.
A single policy or bill is not the solution. Instead, partnerships between schools and community organisations like AltSport, with real investment in both wellbeing and learning is going to be the magic pill that cures the after effects of the pandemic, ensuring children don’t just “catch up” academically but also regain the confidence, social skills and resilience they lost due to years of social isolation, hiding their expressions behind face masks and interacting with their peers only through Zoom.
