Plans are in place for a school in Faversham to launch a sixth-form golf Academy.

The Abbey School, already home to the popular Dover Athletic FC Academy, expects to start the fully-funded programme in partnership with Faversham Golf Club from September 2025.

Jack Long, one of the school’s PE teachers and a member at Faversham Golf Club, came up with the idea. It will see him work with Faversham Golf Club’s long-serving PGA head professional Stuart Rokes.

Long said: “I love golf and we have got the Dover Athletic Football Club Academy. I do quite a bit of work with them.

“I just thought that we could marry that system except, rather than it being a football Academy, we could have a golf Academy. When they play football, we go and play golf and, when they train, we go to the driving range.

“It was a bit of a light-bulb moment. I’m a member at Faversham Golf Club, which is really nice.

“I was just thinking ‘I’d love to spend a few more hours up here a week’ - but, also, to get some more kids involved in golf.”

The post-16 programme would be funded through resources The Abbey School is able to get and, while it’s not a one-of-a-kind idea, there are few around like it.

Long admitted: “It’s still got a bit of a snobby reputation. Golf costs money, doesn’t it?

“But as a school, we get about £8,000 in funding per kid for them to come to sixth form.

“I just spoke to the head teacher [Dr Rowland Speller] and said ‘If we get a few kids in, we could then pay for their membership and a lesson every week from their PGA professional’. He really likes the idea.

“It’s a bit of a new niche for the school, bringing more pupils in, bringing external pupils in, and the one other Academy that I know of, Pedham Place, is in Swanley.

“They do it a bit like a soccer school so they’re not affiliated with a school. They do it all in-house and, due to that, there’s no funding for them.

“They’re charging the kids £6,500 per year to attend whereas we wouldn’t have to charge the kids anything.

“We would be able to fully fund it with government funding and offer more kids that opportunity because there’s not many parents that can afford that for their kid to play golf a couple of times a week.”

From the golf club’s perspective, it is hoped the Academy would help attract more youngsters to join as members, with the venue located on the outskirts of Faversham.

Long said: “Having spoken to Paul Smith, the manager of the golf club, he said that the section where we have the least amount of members is the 18-year-old to 21-year-old demographic.

“If we can fund some 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds to have a couple of years at the golf club, there’s a really strong chance that they will love the golf club -and become an adult member.

“At the moment, they do it until they’re 16 or 17 and then realise ‘Ooh, that’s quite a steep increase in payment’ and we’re kind of bridging that gap.

“We’re motivating them to be happy, loving golf while it’s fully-funded and then, come 18 or 19, we hope they think ‘Actually, I love this so much that I’m willing to become an adult member’.”

The Abbey School has been home to Dover Athletic’s football Academy for more than a decade.

“It’s got such a good reputation,” said Long. “There are a few other Academies around but the Dover one creates a real pathway because I think they have got about eight ex-pupils that are playing for their first team. It’s a really good system.

“Because that’s in place, the sixth form doesn’t have lessons on Wednesday afternoons so we can go and play golf on Wednesday afternoons.

“The Academy trains on Monday and Friday mornings so we can practise on those days. It’s all built into their timetables and it’s not like they’re missing out on lessons.”

But, while Dover’s Academy compete in the National League under-19 Alliance Division, sourcing competitive fixtures could be an initial challenge for the golf programme.

Long explained: “There is a sixth-form golf league across the country, but it’s more of a cup - it’s not a league. It’s more of a knockout system rather than weekly fixtures.

“The plan is to contact the private schools and say ‘I’m sure you have got a few golfers within your sixth form and, basically, we would love to arrange some friendlies’.

“We will contact the likes of The King’s School and St Edmund’s School, just all the Kent private schools, really, and try to arrange fixtures with them. Then, we can look to have an in-house league.

“If we have got 12 players in the Academy that are all playing golf, every Wednesday - or maybe every other Wednesday - they would play, write their scores down and get a handicap going. We could then have a monthly league table within the Academy in terms of who’s playing and who’s winning.

“That may be where we struggle a little bit because there’s not many other golf Academies, other than the one in north Kent, but I’m confident we can get some friendlies with the private schools and get something going in-house.

“Paul has a lot of contacts, as well. We’re hoping he might be able to contact Prince’s in Sandwich and see if we can bring eight to them to vary it up a little bit so that they’re not just playing at Faversham.”

Rokes will teach pupils as part of the Faversham Golf Academy, supported by Long.

“Stuart has been at the golf club for nearly 30 years,” stated Long. “I’ve had a lot of lessons with him and know that he’s a great golf coach.

“He will be delivering actual teaching.

“Each pupil will get one lesson with him every week and then I will be overseeing their practice when he’s not there, making sure they’re doing the drills that they need to be doing on the chipping green, putting green and the driving range.”

Long thinks the golf programme can help capitalise on something of a boom within the sport following Covid.

He said: “We just want to widen those opportunities.

“Golf is growing. Since Covid, there’s been a big boom of it. With people like Jimmy Bullard doing GOLF LIFE with (TV personality) Tubes and stuff like that, there’s a lot of golf on YouTube.

“LIV Golf has come in and it’s definitely growing. But it still does cost a lot of money.

“My annual membership this year was £1,500 and there’s a lot of young people that cannot commit to spending that amount of money on a hobby.

“What we’re trying to do - and it’s a bit cliche - but we’re trying to give kids that are from not as wealthy backgrounds the opportunities to be involved.”

Promotion of the Faversham Golf Academy is well under way and those interested will be able to sign up after The Abbey School’s sixth-form open evening tomorrow.

Long explained: “A lot of Year 11 pupils and external pupils come to the school for that to have a look around, meeting teachers and seeing what courses are available. We’ll have a stand up there.

“A big banner has gone on the A2 (London Road), promoting it, and the same on the 3G. A banner will be going up at the golf club to promote it.

“Paul is going to email our 600 members with a leaflet, trying to promote it to members at the club.

“I have created a Facebook and Instagram page. I’m just trying to do a post every couple of days to drum that up.”

Email golfacademy@abbeyschoolfaversham.co.uk or call 01795 532633 for further details.

Alternatively, search for "Faversham Golf Academy" to find their Facebook and Instagram pages.