'Eventually, I hit more than I missed and realised: missing is a means to an end. It made me braver and I took more risks'

Fourteen-year-old Jemima is on a roll. This year, she represented her Stratford school at the UK’s largest youth public speaking competition and won, becoming the East London regional champion. She was one of 120 girls invited to a science day where the top five were rewarded with a week of work experience at Microsoft, and Jemima nailed that too. In addition, she secured a competitive work experience placement with Onside Law, the sports law firm representing Jannik Sinner and Rory McIlroy. And recently, she was made a prefect.Not bad for a girl who arrived in Britain from Bangladesh five years ago barely speaking English and too shy to raise her hand in class.Jemima attributes her transformation to the skills she has learned through tennis, a sport she once thought was “only for posh girls”, and, more specifically, to her Greenhouse Sports coach, Tom Sippy, who has been a mentor and confidant since she took up the sport three years ago.Today is the final day of our Sporting Chance campaign in partnership with Greenhouse Sports and we are delighted to report that the total raised has risen from £500,000 to £955,000. This is firstly thanks to a contribution of over £300,000 collectively from Bloomberg, Man Charitable Trust, Blue Owl, CVC, Pemberton, and BGC Group, long-standing partners of Greenhouse Sports – all this additional money will go to Greenhouse Sports to support its work with young people. Jemima John Nguyen/JNVisualsSecondly, we have raised a further £154,000 from The London Community Foundation, which will be used to fund four additional charities. These are The Saracens Sport Foundation and Unitas (Barnet) Youth Zone, both in Barnet, and Uptown Youth Services and AFC Wimbledon Foundation, both in Merton. These four charities provide coach-mentoring and use rugby, boxing, dance and football respectively as the hook to engage young people.Backing for our campaign also came from Paralympic table tennis world number one Will Bayley and British sprinter Zharnel Hughes. Bayley said: “Sport has shaped my life in ways I could never have imagined. It has given me confidence, purpose and a community, but I know it’s rarely just the sport that makes the difference. It is the people around it — the coaches, parents, your ‘tribe’ who encourage and believe in you. That’s what Greenhouse is for so many kids and why I am delighted to support this campaign."The Standard joined forces with Greenhouse Sports to deliver sports coaching and mentoring to young people in secondary schools across some of London’s most deprived boroughs. So far, £955,000 has been raised, with £550,000 going to Greenhouse Sports programmes in London and the balance to eight other youth charities across the capital. On this, the final day of our campaign, we call on corporations, foundations, philanthropists and our readers to donate to help us get to £1M. All funds raised will go to Greenhouse Sports programmes in London. Hughes said: “Working with Greenhouse brought back so many memories of when I was starting out: limited facilities but a burning desire to be something. What drew me to the charity is the power of sport, but also their staying power. Seeing how Greenhouse invest in young people over years, the same way my coach invested in me. That kind of consistency is everything, especially for kids who might not have it elsewhere. Sport opens the door but it's the people behind it who change lives.”Jemima is a case in point. She did not come from a sporty family and had never considered tennis. As a newly arrived nine-year-old, she taught herself English by watching TV cartoons such as SpongeBob SquarePants.“I was a quiet girl who sat passively at the back of the class, so I wasn’t that great at school,” she says. “When they told us that Greenhouse was offering tennis in PE, it confused me because I thought of it as a rich person’s sport. A few of us switched from rock climbing and signed up. We did it on a whim.”Jemima had never picked up a racket and, at first, found tennis boring. But she persisted, joined the after-school club and improved rapidly. She made friends and earned a place in the school team, yet her parents were resistant.“We are quite a religious Muslim family and my parents are very protective,” she says. “They didn’t like me travelling home from the after-school club on the bus alone and they saw tennis as a distraction from my studies. I had to promise to get good grades to be allowed to continue.”How your money can help Greenhouse Sports£15 Could enable a young person to access their programme for a week£65 Could provide 4 weeks of sports coaching and mentoring, helping a young person build confidence, resilience and a sense of belonging£165 Could provide coaching and mentoring during school holidays£800 Could provide a full year of coaching and mentoring, ensuring they stay engaged with school and develop the life skills to fulfil their potential How did playing tennis translate into becoming a confident public speaker and being recognised for her leadership qualities?Jemima says: “Coach Tom made me realise it is okay to mess up and miss. And because I was a beginner, I missed more than I hit. Failure was intensely frustrating, but eventually I hit more than I missed and I realised: missing is a means to an end. It made me braver and I took more risks in my personal life. Becoming a prefect was never on the cards for me. Without Tom’s encouragement, I would never have gone for it.”She adds: “On the science day, we had to create an app and I think I stood out because I was prepared to step up and lead the team. They liked the way I presented myself and saw that I delegated well and understood what I was talking about.”Coach Tom Sippy, 36, a qualified primary school teacher who played county-level tennis before joining Greenhouse Sports six years ago, says: “She’s come to this country at nine barely speaking English — to this! She’s not afraid to fail and she has resilience. This is the culture we try to create at Greenhouse.”Jemima and her peers have also benefitted from hearing speakers from companies such as Bloomberg and Goldman Sachs, organised by Greenhouse Sports at tennis events.In the meantime, her parents have become more supportive. “Recently my mum saw me play for the first time,” she says. “I think she was surprised at how hard I hit the ball and by the quality of my shots.”Jemima and coach Tom SippyJohn Nguyen/JNVisualsAccording to Tom, Jemima has become one of the top three doubles players at her school, which has 1,275 girls enrolled, and she regularly beats both girls’ and boys’ pairs from other schools, some of whom have had private coaching since the age of eight.“She’s a brilliant reflex volleyer,” says Tom. “The word among the other girls is, ‘Keep it away from Jemima when she’s at net’.”Tom has also helped Jemima off the court, including coping with the disappointment of feeling excluded because of parental restrictions. “My year group was going camping and climbing in Wales, but my parents refused to let me go. I was devastated. Coach Tom helped me understand their perspective and made me realise it wasn’t the end of the world.”More than half the pupils at Jemima’s school are eligible for free school meals and an even higher proportion are of Bangladeshi or Pakistani heritage. Tom says: “There are many girls with backgrounds like Jemima’s whose parents tend to be stricter. I empathise because I was raised in a similar way by a very protective, anxious and controlling father. My mother is white English but my father came from India, where things were culturally different.”Jemima says her parents are becoming more flexible, letting her attend friends’ birthday parties. As a result, she feels “closer” to them. “I could have become alienated from them,” she says. “They now see tennis as a gateway to things they care about.”Tom adds: “When Jemima won the Jack Petchey public speaking award, her dad looked completely shocked. He wanted to give her a hug, but he couldn’t get close because all her friends were jumping all over her. I was touched when he told me: ‘Jemima loves tennis and I let her do it because I love her’.”Another large London girls’ comprehensive using Greenhouse Sports for tennis is St Anne’s Catholic High School for Girls in Enfield.Headteacher Emma Loveland says that when she brought in Greenhouse Sports four years ago, she chose tennis because “it has a reputation as an elite sport requiring private lessons and isn’t seen as a priority for parents facing high levels of need”.“We pay Greenhouse £25,000 a year and get a service that would otherwise cost us £100,000-a-year, so it’s an incredibly good deal,” she says. “Around 150 of our 940 girls play tennis, with around one-third referred because they are struggling with their emotions or confidence. Tennis gives them self-esteem. Their whole way of walking changes.”She adds: “We have had girls at high risk of becoming school refusers who now never miss a class because they want to play tennis, and they can’t play if their attendance falls below a certain level. For them, tennis is the glue.Sporting ChanceThe Standard“I have seen girls who never smiled and then took up tennis and all I could see was their smile. The sound of a tennis ball being struck is a beautiful sound, but it’s not typically associated with a north London school in a deprived area. It’s led to improvements in attendance, attainment and behaviour. Our academic level was already good, but girls can put too much pressure on themselves and then freeze. Tennis provides balance. They learn emotional intelligence and empathy by supporting their teammates. The confidence that the coach gives the girls is priceless.”For Jemima, too, it is the confidence that stands out. “My dream has always been to become a surgeon, but in my heart of hearts I never thought I was good enough,” she says. “Now coach Tom calls me a superstar. I back myself to get into medicine and achieve my dream.” “She arrived as a tadpole, now she’s a big fish”Gabriele took up basketball two years ago because she fancied a boy in school who played and thought it might give her an excuse to meet him. It didn’t work — the boy ignored her. But she fell in love with basketball instead.“At the time, I lacked confidence,” says Gabriele, 15. “Meeting people and talking to them was scary, but when I met Coach Clayden, I found him easy to talk to about things that were on my mind, including relationships and things I didn’t discuss even with my mum.”“The girl who arrived on court two years ago had no presence, she just blended in, yet look at her now,” says Clayden Nicholson, the Greenhouse Sports coach-mentor at Gabriele’s school in Croydon.Gabrielle John Nguyen/JNVisuals“Gabriele is full of energy and has become one of the top players in the school. It has rubbed off on her academic performance, too. Now her aim is not just to get good grades — it’s to get the top grades. Gabriele and a couple of girls on the team have become rivals both in the classroom and on the court, and the competition is making them all better.”Gabriele was one of 12 pupils who originally signed up for basketball. Now there are 80, more than half of whom have been referred because they were struggling with some aspect of school.“I used to be quite rude in lessons,” she says. “I didn’t like authority and got defensive very quickly. Coach Clayden helped me think about the consequences of my actions. My discipline has improved. I keep my goal in mind and know that if I want to reach a higher level, I have to put in the work.”She plays two hours a day, six days a week, including for a National League team which reached the finals of a recent Junior NBA tournament. She also helps coach younger pupils. “I want to play basketball at college,” she says. “I want to study sports science and I’m aiming for a top university.”Coach Clayden is in no doubt about her potential. “She arrived as a tadpole, now she’s a big fish. I predict great things.” Join the conversation online with #SportingChance.