Olympic gold medal winner joins forces with Gosport schools team to boost pupils’ ambitions

David Faulkner MBE, a former pupil at Brune Park School, was part of the GB squad who won a gold medal for Britain in hockey in the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

Alongside business People Academy, David has been working to support the executive team at the Gosport and Fareham Multi Academy (GFM) Trust, which includes both Bay House and Brune Park Schools.

David, who has worked as an Olympic performance director and most recently with The FA as head of performance for the women’s professional game, said: ‘The GFM have a fantastic leadership team who collectively hold an inspiring aspiration to improve the lives of young people in Gosport.

‘The work with People Academy was for the executive team to reflect on their own personal performance and explore how they come together as a high performing team for the best of them as a team, the staff and pupils across the school network.’

Staff at the GFM were exposed to experiences and practices that highlight what makes a high performing team and how this could be implemented.

At the end of the programme the findings were presented back to the trustees on the board of GFM.

Ian Potter, the GFM’s CEO, said: ‘To have the opportunity to be coached by those who have enabled others to achieve medals at the Olympics inspired us to want to ensure that our leadership will be gold standard in what we want to achieve for Gosport youngsters.’

People Academy has experience in working with executive teams in high performance sport and business.

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People Academy has had previous success with Olympic athletes and coaches in the USA in sports including cycling, snowboarding, rugby and archery all of whom have won Olympic and World medals.

Miles Henson, co-founder of People Academy, said: ‘I was incredibly impressed with the executive team at the GFM who are determined to deliver the best for the young people in the area including their wellbeing and recognised their actions and behaviours were fundamental to this.’