Keep your eye on the ball

Located next to a golf course, the small, independent Loretto School this term launched a specialist academy for the sport. As Hilary Wilce discovers, the enquiries have begun to flood in

Roseanne Niven, 13, is a keen junior golfer, with a handicap of eight, whose ambition is to win a golfing scholarship to university in America. Until recently, she had to make time to go up to the course after school to practise. But all that changed last week, when she left her old school to became one of the first four members of an elite squad at Britain's first school-based golf academy.

"Now I'll get good golf as part of my timetable," she says. "We read about it in a Scottish golf magazine, and my Mum made enquiries. I minded a little about changing schools, but I knew one of the other girls already, and everyone seems really friendly."

Loretto School is a small private school just outside Edinburgh, with the famous Musselburgh Links course on its doorstep. Golf has been played on this course since 1672. When the school launched the idea of its specialist academy this summer, it knew it was tapping into superb local resources, as well as a long tradition of golfing excellence at the school – seven captains of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St Andrews have been Lorettonians.

"We knew we were sitting on a goldmine of talent, and it seemed an opportunity to release that talent," says the head, Michael Mavor, who was in charge of Rugby School for 11 years, before he returned to the place where he himself went to school. Of the two boys and two girls who were offered golfing scholarships this September, half come from private schools and half from state schools. "And we certainly hope this pattern will continue," says Mavor.

Founded 175 years ago, Loretto is Scotland's oldest independent boarding school. It is known for its family atmosphere, with fewer than 400 pupils, aged five to 18. It also boasts a spacious campus and a famous pipes and drums band. Among its old boys are the BBC's political editor and former editor of The Independent, Andrew Marr, the former Chancellor, Sir Norman Lamont, the Chairman of the Scottish Sports Council, Graeme Simmers and Alistair Darling, the Transport Secretary. But the school's profile had, in the words of one observer, "slipped a little bit" when Mavor was brought in as head last year, along with a driving new Australian marketing director, the former cricketer Ian McLean.

Their job was to raise the school's profile, encourage more pupils to come to the school and hone its image.

"The school was good at lots of things," explains McLean, "but we thought, 'If we're going to market it properly, let's hang our hat on something'. So we sat down and thought, 'What makes Loretto different to any other school?' And we realised we were right at the heart of golf in the world. It's huge here. There are 19 courses within 20 minutes' drive of the school. It was an obvious thing. We just had to formalise it a little bit."

The Golf Academy will run on three levels: introducing juniors to the game, with even six-year-olds playing it with plastic golf clubs and fluffy balls; giving coaching to older students who want to learn it for enjoyment; and offering an intensive programme to the kind of top-level students who have the potential to be junior champions. Golf coaching will take place during the school's sports and activity times, although elite players will also have flexible timetables, allowing them time off for tournaments and practice.

Eventually, the school expects this squad to expand to around a dozen players. Some of these will come up through Loretto, and others will apply specifically to join the academy. The school hopes to be able to offer scholarships to all outstanding players, and enquiries about the academy have already come from as far afield as Colombia and Spain, as well as from pupils in the south of England. This year, eight formal assessments were made, before the first four students were taken on. The coaching, which will be by East Lothian golf professionals, will be focused on the nearby Craigielaw Golf Club, which boasts a new course. Students will also practise at the Melville Golf Centre and the Musselburgh Links, while the school itself will be offering modules on green-keeping and golf-course management, as well as introducing students to sports psychology, nutrition and biomechanics.

"There will be an academy ethos," says McLean. "There'll be indoor videos and coaching assessment. We will also have a driving range and putting greens at the school, so that they can come out of the boarding houses in the evening and have a bit of a practice."

Golf has always been hugely popular in Scotland, and the new academy is in line with a current national initiative by the Scottish Executive and the national sports agency to introduce every Scottish school pupil to golf. But in England, too, the game is continuing to shake off its suburban gin-and-jag image, with more youngsters coming forward to learn it and an increasing number of schools offering it as part of their sports programme. If this continues, it may not be long before Loretto is joined by a similar establishment south of the border.

Enquiries about the Golf Academy: Fiona Stevenson, director of admissions, Loretto School, 0131-653 4455; or visit www. loretto.com

education@independent.co.uk