Our extra curricular sports academies provide athletes with outstanding opportunities. We are extremely pleased and excited to announce a third student has gained international honours this year. Bailey Kempster, part of our under 19s football programme, has recently been selected for the England colleges football team.

As well as impressing the academy and senior coaches at our partner club Weston-super-Mare AFC, Bailey has had a successful first two seasons playing national youth alliance football.

This accolade is extremely well deserved and caps off a fantastic two years of development. It is great to see that our football programme is now going from strength to strength with Bailey being the second colleges international to come out of the programme since our official partnership with Weston football club started just three years ago.

We caught up with Bailey who added:

"My time in the sports academy has been a great experience with high level coaching and a brilliant training and games program.

"The coaches, the team and the facilities available has made my time at the academy a excellent environment to work in. They have also given me the opportunity to represent them by nominating me for these trials.

"The selection process consisted of two trials. The first of these was a South West trial which was held at Weston Super Mare AFC and the second was a national trial in Leicester. Each player was then given a minimum of 60 minutes in the matches we played to impress the coaches and show them that you are worthy of a place in the final squad. 

"I can't wait to start on the 1st of July with a game against Chelsea FC. We then have a tournament at the end of July with many professional clubs attending. 

"My advice for someone getting into football would be to stay positive, never give up and be prepared to work hard."

Bailey now joins female rugby athletes, Lottie Dadds and Katie Mackay, as our third international progression for this season. We are extremely proud of the trio and wish them the best of luck for all of their fixtures in the future.

Academy Manager Jack Gadd said:

"This is a fantastic achievement for these athletes and shows how the programmes continue to encourage and produce players for these highest of honours.

"All three have epitomised what it means to be a student athlete here at Weston College. It is great to see our programme helping athletes achieve their sporting goals and are now receiving recognition on the national stage.

"We are extremely proud of the three guys and are looking forward now to supporting the next crop of talent reach its potential next season where we hope to add to this tally across our main performance sports."

Principal and Chief Executive, Dr Paul Phillips CBE added: "A massive congratulations to all three of our national achievers this season. With these successes and the development of state-of-the-art sporting facilities at the Health and Active Living Skills Centre, I'm so proud that Weston College and partners are continuing to put Weston on the map as a hub of excellence and outstanding young talent"