S4A Group Ltd or as many of you know it, Sports 4 All started way back in 2007. After leaving year 11 at Buckingham School and going on to do Business and P.E A Levels I was offered to run an after-school club at Buckingham Primary School whilst doing some volunteering there as part of my course with Scott. Sports 4 All started as a partnership between myself and Scott. While we held down other jobs at Northampton Town and MK Dons as well as working on the Trolleys at Tesco. Sports 4 All grew after the first year as it employed our first coach Adam Bone, who is still with us to this day! As a small company, we worked at BPS, St James and St Johns, and Great Horwood School running breakfast and afterschool sports sessions as well as P.E. lessons.
The fondest memories come from them first few years as three friends myself, Scott, and Adam spent every day joining in football, running clubs, and navigating through early work and life. With the support of some wonderful headteachers, parents of children we coached, and teachers. None more supportive than Jan Jones and Gill Pedder headteachers who took a chance on some teenagers with 100% enthusiasm but not a lot of knowledge.
Our growth in the next few years.
Over the next 7 years, we steadily grew working in some new schools and adding to our team whilst becoming more astute and understanding how to run a business year on year. In 2015 as Scott moved onto a new career and Sports 4 All moved to an Ltd company and became S4A Sports 4 All Ltd with the intention of providing childcare as well as sports. As well as creating S4A Development Ltd as we left working in the academies of professional football to help our mission of creating football opportunities for all.
Our first aim was to become Ofsted registered and begin to accept childcare vouchers. Between 2015 and 2020 S4A grew into wraparound care in schools, this meant moving into full childcare, offering cooking, crafts, science, and the like. Our team then needed to become more nurturing and a mix between sports-orientated and childcare-orientated. S4A Sports 4 All then diversified slightly to become the S4A Group Ltd. Splitting into 4 internal teams. Smiles 4 All – Running Ofsted Accredited activities in wraparound and holiday times. Sports 4 All – Offering high-quality P.E. to primary schools and nurseries. Support 4 All – Supporting our team, apprentice program, and external communications and support.S4 Development – Growing a football pathway from 4-18 in the community.
Covid to current day.
Covid hit and like most businesses times became tough. Our previous recession-proof business as people will always need childcare and sports became looking after key worker children and some diversification was needed. After a tough two years of surviving and continuing to grow, 2023 has been a breath of fresh air. We have been able to become a team of 60 like-minded team members with the sole purpose of providing stimulating and active childcare that is fully inclusive. This has led us to our two exciting projects which have become roaring successes and something we are truly proud of.
Entire, a charity to provide opportunities for sports and activities to those children with an EHCP, on the SEN register, or with complex needs. We have already worked with over 130 young people regularly in our clubs from 4-19 ensuring the meaning of fully inclusive is fully met. Our mission The cost of provision, sport, and childcare to a family will cost the same as a mainstream provision no matter the staffing ratio. To create a SEND provision accessible to all and affordable for all. Wraparound Plus at S4A Group Ltd we know that keeping a personal service and knowing the children we work with is a priority, which is why we have no plans to franchise outside the local area. Our collaboration with Aspire Education means training and supporting sports coaching companies from across England to become Ofsted-registered childcare deliverers. We have companies from Southampton to Sunderland on our course as we look to support real change in our sector and help companies become so much more than just sports. S4A has now employed 16 ex-students from our junior football teams and schools’ P.E. work over the last 16 years including our current area manager! The last 12 months have been nothing short of incredible at S4A and I couldn’t be prouder to be a part of this team that is changing the face of inclusivity and diversity in children’s activities. This has been outlined by us looking to recruit 12 passionate individuals after Easter to train them in the S4A way ready for our new schools in September. We have currently had over 120 applications for our roles by creating jobs that are flexible around people’s lives. A lot of lessons have been learned in the last 16 years but none more so than do everything you can for your team and they in turn will do everything they can for the children and families we look after. S4A is an exciting team to be a part of at the moment and the passion and drive to create something to be proud of has never been more profound. We have some incredibly exciting news coming before September and can’t wait to share it with you, for everyone that has been part of our journey so far we are all so grateful for the continued support this community gives us.
