Sometimes the Strongest Business Opportunity Is the One You Didn’t Plan For – Kate Lowndes From Roarsome Sport
When Kate Lowndes started Roarsome Sport, she wasn’t setting out to build a specialist adapted PE business.
She was looking for something broader for her own daughter.
At the time, most of the options she could find were heavily focused on football. Kate wanted children to have the chance to try different sports, build fundamental movement skills and work out what they actually enjoyed before being funnelled into one activity too early.
So she created the thing she couldn’t find herself.
That was just over two years ago.
Today, Kate is a finalist for Rising Star of the Year, sponsored by BabyBeats, at The Class Business Awards 2026, and Roarsome Sport has developed in a direction she couldn’t have predicted when she first started.
From Rolls-Royce engineer to sports business owner
Kate’s route into the children’s activity sector wasn’t particularly conventional.
Before going full-time with Roarsome Sport, she worked as a mechanical design engineer for Rolls-Royce. She initially ran the business alongside part-time engineering work before making the decision last year to leave that career behind.
The business had always been built with family life in mind. Kate has two young children, and the move into self-employment gave her the chance to create something that worked more naturally around them.
Her first classes ran on Sundays, which suited both her own schedule and the families she was serving. Those community sessions are still going strong, but the business has since developed another strand that has become increasingly important.
The opportunity that changed the direction of the business
Just over a year ago, Kate was approached about delivering PE in a special needs school.
It started with one lesson a week.
Then it became two.
Now she delivers eight PE lessons a week, alongside active playtimes and lunchtimes.
That growth didn’t come from Kate arriving with a fixed programme and expecting every child to fit into it.
It came from adapting.
Many of the children Kate works with are non-verbal or pre-verbal and have complex needs, so the sessions look very different from a traditional PE lesson. She uses visual resources, station-based activities and close collaboration with teaching assistants so children can participate in a way that works for them.
“It’s not the sort of class where I can stand at the front and deliver a lesson.”
That change in approach has become one of Roarsome Sport’s real strengths.
Relationships before sport
What I found particularly powerful in our conversation was Kate’s recognition that, for some children, the sport itself isn’t the first priority.
She’s invested in SEND training, autism training and learning directly from neurodivergent adults, parents and specialists to understand the children she works with more deeply.
Her conclusion is simple:
“A lot of it comes down to safety and relationships before the sport and the exercise.”
That’s a huge lesson.
Sometimes we get so focused on the activity we deliver that we forget children need to feel safe, understood and connected before they can engage with it properly.
Kate’s work is a really strong example of starting with the person rather than the programme.
Impact doesn’t always look like a sporting result
One of the most moving stories Kate shared had nothing to do with kicking a ball or completing an obstacle course.
She had been working with a five-year-old boy who was non-verbal. Because Kate arrives early and spends time in the classroom before PE, she had gradually built a relationship with him.
One day, they were looking at The Gruffalo together. Kate started reciting the story and using the toys alongside it. The child began copying her, and when she held up one of the characters, he made a clear phonic sound.
The teaching assistant sitting beside them told Kate she had never heard him make that sound before.
Kate summed it up beautifully:
“Nothing to do with sport and PE, but it’s relationship.”
That’s why impact in a class business can be much broader than the obvious outcome.
The thing you teach can become the route to confidence, communication, trust or connection.
Kate has seen physical progress too. She talked about one girl who had only learned to walk around a year before Kate started working with her. After a year of sessions, she was jumping over small hurdles.
When you look at change like that over time, it’s enormous.
A positive first experience can shape what comes next
That philosophy also runs through Kate’s community classes.
Roarsome Sport isn’t about pushing children towards competition as quickly as possible. Kate wants them to experience different activities, build confidence and find the kind of movement they actually enjoy.
That’s particularly important when it comes to keeping girls involved in sport.
Rather than focusing heavily on competition, Kate encourages children to improve against their own previous performance. She also brings teamwork, friendship and social connection into the sessions.
Her goal isn’t to create elite athletes at seven years old.
It’s to help children leave knowing:
- what kinds of sport they enjoy
- that movement can be fun
- that they’re capable of learning new skills
- that sport can be social and supportive
- that there’s more than one way to be “good” at it
As Kate put it, “The game is irrelevant. It’s just a way of getting people together and meeting and having fun.”
Let the business show you where the opportunity is
One of the things I really like about Kate’s journey is that she hasn’t tried to force Roarsome Sport to stay exactly as she imagined it at the beginning.
She followed an opportunity into a special needs school.
Then she invested in learning.
Then she adapted the programme.
Now the school is talking to her about potentially delivering CPD training to staff, and Kate can see how that might grow into work with other schools and academy settings too.
That’s the part worth paying attention to.
Your first business plan isn’t a contract with your future self.
Sometimes the strongest route appears once customers, partners or communities start showing you where your particular skills are most valuable.
Kate’s engineering background probably helps too. She’s comfortable looking at systems, building resources and working out how to make something function better.
But the biggest strength she’s developed is knowing when to adapt rather than insist.
Rising stars keep learning
Kate also spoke about the importance of having a support network around her as an independent business owner.
She had considered franchising when she started and recognised that one of the things an independent business can lack is a ready-made network of people to ask.
For her, having access to other business owners has helped fill those knowledge gaps.
That willingness to say, “I don’t know this yet, so I need to learn it” is probably one of the reasons the business has developed so quickly.
Rising stars aren’t people who already have everything figured out.
They’re people who keep paying attention, keep learning and keep moving when the opportunity changes shape.
Watch the full interview
In our full conversation, Kate shares how she moved from mechanical engineering into children’s activities, why inclusive PE has become a growing specialism for Roarsome Sport, what she’s learned about supporting children with complex needs and why positive early experiences of sport matter so much.
👉 Watch Kate’s full finalist interview here.
Kate Lowndes is a finalist for Rising Star of the Year, sponsored by BabyBeats, at The Class Business Awards 2026.
Join us on Saturday 10 October 2026 at the National Conference Centre in Solihull for The Class Business Live, followed by The Class Business Awards & Afterparty.
The daytime event runs from 9:00am–3:00pm, bringing together class business owners, finalists, judges and sponsors for learning, mastermind conversations and sector connections before the evening celebrations begin at 6:00pm. Book your ticket here.
