Blackburn Rovers Official Partner

The special partnership between Moorland School and Blackburn Rovers has become extremely strong and both the Club and the School have developed a unique relationship.

Moorland School is fast developing an international reputation for helping to nurture first-class footballing talent, with a number of boys going through the school whilst progressing through Rovers’ Youth ranks. Consequently, players receive the very best education, in class sizes of 14-15 students (on average), delivered by a young and dynamic teaching team.

The development of our new BTEC Level 3 programme offers us the ability to be able to attract talented footballers up to the age of 18 and also allow a natural transition for our Academy graduates once they complete their GCSE’s. The addition of the ‘Shadow Squad’ allows players to share facilities and Coaches with signed players making the opportunity of being professionally selected more likely than ever.

The importance of having such quality educational provision, together with excellent pastoral support, cannot be underestimated when it comes to young students who have day release or reduced contact time with teachers. Moorland’s unique approach, along with the unrivalled liaison between Club and School, means that the loss of contact time in the classroom is negated.

During the 2017/18 academic year alone, we currently have ten signed boys who are feeling the benefits of the unique relationship between Moorland and the Academy. Indeed, it is also enabling boys who are enrolled at Moorland School to seamlessly fit into life at Brockhall should they be successful at club trials. Jay Haddow of Year 9, has only been boarding with us since his arrival from Hong Kong in September 2016. Jay secured a trial with Rovers and subsequently won a contract with the Club. The partnership has made the transition for Jay as smooth as possible, and Jay is now a regular starter and key player for the BRFC U15 & U16 sides.

This early success has been built on our past results. As recently as the Summer of 2015, Moorland School helped produce footballers of the future for BRFC. Stefan Mols, Joe Grayson and Alex Curran graduated through Moorland School’s Football Academy. They then went straight into signing a two-year scholarship as U18’s with Rovers’ Academy. Furthermore, the boys reached their academic potential with excellent GCSE results in the same year.  Last year, we were thrilled when we learned that Joe and Stefan were rewarded with their first professional contracts with the Club and are now part of Tony Mowbray’s first team squad.