SwordMark Accreditation

SwordMark Clubs

In order to become a SwordMark Club you will first need to register by filling in the Registration Forms, when you complete the registration form submit it to SwordMark Clubs at British Fencing, 1 Baron's Gate, 33 Rothschild Road, London, W4 5HT with your self assessment form alternatively email them to charlie.miller@britishfencing.com

When you have completed the self assessment forms and the registration form, we will send you the SwordMark Criteria and Evidence and allocate an individual to support you in completing your application.

When the club is ready to formally apply for assessment you will need to complete the Application Forms and send your completed evidence file to British Fencing.  We will then organise sending an assessor out to assess your club.

SWORDMARK

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

WHAT IS SWORDMARK?

SwordMark is British Fencing’s Club Accreditation Programme which is designed to recognise clubs who have demonstrated a minimum level of operating standards in working with young people and therefore offer a safe and supportive club environment.

SwordMark fully complements the Sport England Clubmark Accreditation Programme and includes all Clubmark criteria.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF ACHIEVING SWORDMARK?

• Being nationally recognised by British Fencing and other organisations as a SwordMark club that is committed to high standards and is a child friendly, safe and efficient club
• Having dedicated support and assistance from a “buddy club” and/or British Fencing National Academy and a Lead Tutor
• Becoming part of a network of quality and accredited fencing clubs across the country
• SwordMark clubs being given the opportunity to become a “buddy club” to share best practice and support other fencing clubs working towards SwordMark accreditation
• Gaining priority promotion on the British Fencing website
• Gaining priority for British Fencing’s “Hire to Buy” scheme to purchase equipment to grow and develop the club
• British Fencing notifying your Local Authority and County Sports Partnership of your club’s SwordMark achievement and potentially becoming eligible for some Local Authority/County Sports Partnerships benefits e.g. prioritised support and promotion and other locally agreed benefits.

HOW DOES A CLUB ACHIEVE SWORDMARK?

The following processes are in place to guide and support clubs working towards SwordMark Accreditation:

• On-line registration.
• Having a ‘buddy club’/National Academy contact assigned to provide support .
• Completing a club self-assessment to understand what your club’s priorities and areas for development may be.
• Creating a club development plan to guide your club’s priority areas of development.
• Collecting and submitting evidence to show the progress and achievements your club has made.
• An independent assessment of your club’s evidence against nationally agreed criteria and being informed of whether these criteria have been met. Ultimately this will result in your club being awarded SwordMark status.

WHAT HELP IS AVAILABLE?

The added value to clubs in being involved in SwordMark is accessing help to best identify where and how they can develop. This is most likely to be when clubs are developing an action plan and working towards accreditation. British Fencing will seek to offer a person with experience and knowledge of SwordMark to assist clubs. This will be via a “buddy” club that has already achieved SwordMark or via an appropriate person within the National Academy Programme, or expertise at Local Authority and/or a County Sports Partnership level.

In addition, there are lots of templates and resources available to help clubs in achieving the required standards of SwordMark. These are available at:

• Sport England Clubmark website (for generic templates): http://www.clubmark.org.uk/resources/downloads
• British Fencing website for real examples from fencing clubs who have kindly offered to share their resources to support other clubs in achieving SwordMark.

DOES A CLUB HAVE TO PAY TO GET INVOLVED IN SWORDMARK?

No. SwordMark is open to any club affiliated to British Fencing.

WHAT DOES MY CLUB NEED IN ORDER TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR SWORDMARK?

The only pre-requisite is that your club is affiliated to British Fencing or a home country equivalent. Apart from that you will need an enthusiastic team of people who are willing to devote some time towards SwordMark and access to the internet to download helpful resources that are in place to support your club. 

WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS?

Visit the SwordMark section on the British Fencing website to download and submit a registration form to register for SwordMark. Once this is submitted, you will be contacted and provided with further information and resources to help you progress towards SwordMark accreditation. You can also access further information about SwordMark on the British Fencing website.

WHAT IS SWORDMARK PLUS?

To go later SwordMark Plus is an additional level of accreditation to SwordMark for fencing clubs. It requires clubs to demonstrate additional criteria to that of SwordMark, including the production of an annual club training programme, and actively accessing the National Academy Programme through club development, athlete development and workforce development programmes.

HOW DO WE SET UP A SWORDMARK WORKING GROUP IN THE CLUB?

A SwordMark working group is recommended to share the workload of SwordMark and to ensure that the right people are involved in the SwordMark Accreditation Programme. Key people that it is suggested to invite onto a club working group are: the coach, the club chairperson, a junior co-ordinator and a club captain. You may wish to include others but the key is not to have too few so that it’s onerous on them or too many that prevents work being done! You may wish to incentivize people becoming involved in the working group by offering a discount on membership, access to a future training course or something similar.

HOW WILL SWORDMARK WORK IF OUR CLUB IS BOTH AN ADULT AND A JUNIOR CLUB?

SwordMark is principally designed for clubs with junior sections. Should a club have both juniors and adults, the SwordMark accreditation programme will only apply to the operating standards that the junior programme has in place. There are, however, good practice elements that will cross over to impact and benefit the adult section of the club.

DO WE NEED TO WORK TOWARDS SWORDMARK ACCREDITATION IF WE ARE AN ADULT ONLY CLUB?

SwordMark is for junior clubs or for clubs with junior sections. For clubs that are adult only, some of the criteria will not apply and you may not be able to demonstrate the evidence required in order to achieve accreditation e.g. a child protection policy. However, SwordMark does encourage good practice in club development, so adult clubs may benefit from looking at the principles that SwordMark promotes and adapting them as necessary to provide a safe and effective adult club.

HOW LONG WILL THE ACCREDITATION BE VALID FOR?

The SwordMark accreditation will be awarded for a 3 year period, subject to a club completing and submitting an annual club health check and action plan which will be assessed by a Lead Tutor. Following a 3 year period which will include a club site visit, clubs will be invited to re-submit for SwordMark accreditation.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SWORDMARK AND CLUBMARK?

SwordMark is the recognised British Fencing Programme for Club Accreditation. It fully adopts the principles of Clubmark but it has been made specific to the needs of fencing and will build upon the work of British Fencing in the future as the programme develops. Clubmark is a generic Sport England Club Development Programme which is owned and managed by Sport England.

WHAT IF OUR CLUB HAS ALREADY ACHIEVED CLUBMARK ACCREDITATION?

Congratulations! British Fencing recognises the commitment and time that your club has put into achieving Clubmark status. British Fencing welcomes supporting and working with you as part of your club’s annual health check in providing the necessary evidence for SwordMark status. A club is automatically upgraded to SwordMark status if it has completed Clubmark. At the end of the Clubmark accreditation (3 years), all fencing clubs will then be required to follow the SwordMark Accreditation Programme.

CAN OUR CLUB ACHIEVE CLUBMARK RATHER THAN SWORDMARK IN THE FUTURE?

No. British Fencing will be the only licensed organisation on behalf of Sport England to accredit fencing clubs. Fencing clubs may receive support from other organisations such as County Sports Partnerships in working towards accreditation, but  British Fencing will be the only licensed body to accredit fencing clubs and SwordMark will be British Fencing’s recognised club development programme.

WHAT IF OUR CLUB HAS ALREADY STARTED ON CLUBMARK?

British Fencing congratulates clubs that have embarked on the process of achieving Clubmark. As you may be aware, British Fencing is developing its own SwordMark Accreditation Programme which is fully aligned to Clubmark. There are additional areas of evidence that British Fencing requires clubs to achieve, many of which are minor tweaks to demonstrate good practice. British Fencing recommends that you build in the below criteria and evidence into your work and now follow the SwordMark Programme and application process that is detailed on the British Fencing website. The additional evidence is listed below to assist clubs: