Education Secretary says kids must toughen up and learn how to lose like Harry Kane

By Damian Hinds, Education Secretary

Like many of you, I watched the Sports Personality of the Year competition on Sunday evening. It really brought home what an amazing year this has been for sport – from Geraint Jones winning the Tour de France, to the last-second goal in the Commonwealth Games netball final.

But with all of the highs winning brings, we all know the crushing disappointment when you lose. This summer the country collectively experienced both extremes during the England football team’s World Cup journey.

Much was said about the Coach of the Year winner, Gareth Southgate’s approach to supporting the young England team through the pressure that the World Cup put on them.

Rather than different playing formations, it was the work the team were doing on mental resilience that caught the headlines.

Geraint Jones showed the same kind of mental toughness when he told himself to ‘chill out a bit’ when he had a wobble on the penultimate stage of the Tour de France.

It is this character and resilience that I want our young people to develop when they are at school – so whether they go on to an international sporting career or a more regular job, they can deal with the ups and downs of life.

Some people believe that children should be wrapped in cotton wool, protected from some of the harsher realities of life for as long as possible. I don’t agree. Failure and disappointment aren’t necessarily a bad thing - we’ll all face them at some point in our lives. It’s how you cope with them that counts.

I call these the four pillars of character: they are believing in yourself and not giving in to self doubt; the motivation to work for long-term goals; bouncing back from knocks and sticking with the task in hand, come what may.

There is a lot we can learn from the sporting world here. Sport can help us all dream big and achieve more. It can teach us how to win gracefully and lose with dignity.

This is why I am making competitive sport in school a priority so young people can develop these skills. Today I am talking to the governing bodies of all the major sports and other providers, like the Youth Sport Trust, about what they can do to make sure more young people have the opportunity to play competitive sport.

This comes ahead of our School Sport Action Plan next year which will look to make sure all children get the chance to try competitive sport and find one that they enjoy and can stick with.

Competitive sport instils the kind of self belief that enabled an 8-year-old Harry Kane to overcome the humiliation of being dumped by Arsenal’s youth team. Kane’s response to not winning Sports Personality of the Year on Sunday night was to say “hopefully in the years to come I can try and win it”.

One day my children will fail at something that truly matters to them – I don’t want them to give up and go home, I want them to respond like Harry Kane.

Talent can take you so far. Good luck may occasionally give you the rub of the green. But it is perseverance and dedication; bravery and commitment that will enable you to reach your goals.