Quilters' Paralympic Week 2021
It was an absolute joy to be back in school last week, especially as it was at Quilters Junior School in Billericay, Essex for their 4th Annual Paralympic Week! Run across the whole week the pupils:
· played inclusive activities
· heard inspiring stories from para-sports stars
· practised resilience, teamwork, and perseverance, and
· competed in fun games against the other class in their year group.
Talan Skeels-Piggins led the week off with a storming start. An alpine sit-skier, paralysed from the chest down from a motorbike accident, he is the epitome of resilience. Defying the odds he learnt to mono-ski after a week of falling over every 3 metres. His mantra is: “Have one more go”, because it was his final run down the mountain that proved he could do it. He went on to represent GB at the Winter Paralympics and at other championships.
Jan Helmich, para-rower and Cambridge student, told of his different journey into disability sport as he started in the mainstream world. He is now aiming for Paris 2024.
Each day a different year group took centre stage in the Quilters main hall. Four activities were played showcasing different abilities, learning, adaption and fun. New age kurling – similar to curling on ice but with ball bearings on the underside of the stones – requires teamwork, skill, tactics and support as the stones become ever more pressurised. Sitting volleyball challenges participants to keep their bottoms attached to the floor, a major challenge indeed to some of the young boys! Sitting netball, a game I claim to have invented, is way harder physically than it looks as scooting around on your bottom (when you do not have the ball) is hard work. It also rewards those that move away from the scrum between the low nets, teaching the children to find space. Goalball, a Paralympic sport, the way we play it, teaches communication – a child standing behind the bench (which we use as a goal) gives directions to the blindfolded child in front of them. It also requires resilience and teamwork.
In the afternoons the classes played against each other in each sport, winning points for a game victory, for teamwork, for resilience and for caring and respect. I shall never forget the joy a young pupil, with extra needs, scoring the winning goal for her class in sitting netball. And the joy it gave to her classmates, her teachers and everyone in the hall!
After wheelchair basketball on the Wednesday – I was given a welcome day off – I faced Rachel Morgan across an improvised net in a playground demonstration of tennis. Rachel, a double world champion at blind tennis, thrashed me! Her superior power and remarkable ability to know where the ball was, overcame my prosthetic racket and short steps, but the children loved it. Rachel was ecstatic to announce this as the biggest crowd she had ever played in front of.
I rounded off the week with an assembly on resilience and how I had never given up. The children listed what they had learnt before I put up my slide:
- Practice makes progress
- Never give up
- Have one more go; and (chanted along with a pause)
- I can’t do it…..YET!
It was another fabulous week at Quilters. We are already planning a special one for the Fifth Paralympic Week next year. I am looking forward to it already.
As Mike Wade, the head teacher says:
This is my favourite week of the school year, and all schools should have one!”
Inspired? Then Get Involved!
If you are interested in hosting a virtual PowerHouseGames in your school / college / company / community group then we would love to hear from you. As you have read we have even found a way to make our PowerHouseGames a success in lockdown so don’t hesitate to get in touch and we can help you plan your very own PowerHouseGames!!
Click the button here to find out more.
Transitions Open Day - Arthur Rank Hospice
Power2Inspire was thrilled to be a part of the Arthur Rank Hospice Transitions Open Day on Monday 23rd August. Designed to assist young patients, their families and carers, in the stressful move to a new home, a number of local charities and organisations attended to make the day as comfortable and enjoyable as possible. We were helping with the new inclusive sports equipment acquired by Arthur Rank through a grant from Sport England.
We showcased new age kurling, boccia, some target games, skittles, and a variety of games using a net, rackets and balls and shuttlecocks. We were also able to teach the staff so the activities can be played with all the residents when we are not around. Fun was had and a couple of members of staff seemed a bit addicted!
Patrick Gosling, our star volunteer, was vital in encouraging and cajoling. But I am sure he will be first to say that the games are accessible to all and anyone can learn them. That is why we were keen to teach the staff so the new kit does not stay in the cupboard but gets used by the residents, their families, friends, and carers. We so enjoyed our afternoon, we look forward to returning at further transitions days.
You can find out more about the fabulous Arthur Rank Hospice and read their blog from the Transitions Day by clicking the link.
Inspired? Then Get Involved!
If you would like to support us in our mission to “embed inclusive sport in the sporting, education and community landscapes” then we would love to hear from you. We are always looking out for people willing to fundraise for Power2Inspire through their own inspiring means. Or, you could volunteer at one of our events, or you could give to the ongoing work of Power2Inspire. Click the button here to find out more.
Festival of Inclusive Golf 2021
Fun again at our Festival of Inclusive Golf at Cambridge Lakes Golf Course, Trumpington, Cambridge on Friday. Five teams totalling 21 players, of varied abilities, played the beautiful par 3 9-hole course – a green oasis only a mile from the centre of Cambridge, on a lovely August evening. And then celebrated with an outdoor barbecue, provided by our wonderful host, Bob Barnes.
The competition – and I use the term very loosely, because Power2Inspire’s purpose is to play together in a fun and friendly atmosphere – uses Texas Scramble rules. Each group plays as a team, which encourages teamwork and helping each other, as the team score counts for each hole – the lowest overall score, wins. Each player hits every shot. After the first shots, the team chooses the ball they wish to use for their second shots and the other players pick up their balls and move them to adjacent to the selected ball. They all then play their second shot, and the process repeats, down to the final putts. This means all team members get to participate. To add a twist, we insist that each team must select each team member’s first shot, on at least two holes, adding a tactical element as a good shot from a weaker player may be the preferred shot to select.
This year we added the fun of “Mulligan balloons”. For a fiver, each team could have a bunch of 8 balloons. The team could decide that any player could replay a shot, with no penalty, by popping a balloon. This created the extraordinary sound around the course of popping balloons as shots tumbled into ditches, bunkers or the lakes!
David Carlisle, a keen and talented young golfer, won the nearest-the-pin competition, at the sixth, beating my effort which was on line until a pesky bunker snaffled my ball. And the Carlton Club, a team comprising Mark and Becca Thornton, Hugh and David Carlisle, came through with the lowest score. Congratulations to them.
Big thanks to all our volunteers, including newcomers Mark and Paula Slater who judged the nearest-the-pin competition, who played, registered, and even cooked the barbecue. Thanks to my teammates Richard and Brian, and to the Mayers and our friend Daniel, whom you can read more about here.
I assured Mark Thornton we will repeat the event next year and hopefully make it bigger, because he says:
“This is one of my favourite events of the year!”
If you’re now inspired for Inclusive Sport then do join us at our next big event:
No event found!
Festival of Inclusive Tennis 2021
We are back! After an enforced Covid hiatus we held our first Festival of Inclusive Tennis post-lockdown on Saturday 3rd July. With over 50 participants at the Cambridge University Sports Centre, it was wonderful to see so many people having fun, playing tennis regardless of ability. The tennis festival brought smiles, laughter and lots of fun!
Rob Ellis of the Cambridge Tennis Academy, with his coaching team encouraged, taught, played and engaged with a wide range of participants, instilling fun into tennis. We had wheelchair users, people with learning disabilities, Down’s syndrome, prosthetics users, and older and younger non-disabled players. Some of the youngsters played for well over two hours – clearly they had the Wimbledon bug!
The key was, and is, inclusion. Our mission is to embed inclusive sport, bringing all to play together, regardless of age, gender, faith, sexual orientation or ability, in the community. Watching groups of players with a range of abilities and backgrounds playing together at this event showcased this mission in action.
“My son and I have just been to the Power2Inspire Inclusive Tennis festival. I had been to many P2I events before, but this is the first time I took my son as he is now grown up.
As always with the other P2I events, we had a lot of fun playing tennis indoors with people from different age groups and alternative skills. There were many courts and ample space for all of us to join and enjoy. They have other events lined up too. You can find out what’s coming up below.”
Such was the fun – after all Power2Inspire’s No.1 Rule is “To have FUN!” – we have already booked to host the festival in 2022: Saturday 2nd July, the middle Saturday of Wimbledon. So put a date in the diary, and if inspired to play tennis more regularly, get in touch with Rob at CTA as they have accessible sessions throughout the year.
See you next year!
If you’re now inspired for Inclusive Sport then do join us at our next big event:
No event found!
An in-person real PowerHouseGames at the Perse!
It was a hot day, the first really hot day of the summer (and it turned out to be the last of this sunny spell) so we were lucky. Fortunately, some of the activities were inside the large sports hall and dance studio, all socially distanced, providing some protection against the sun! New Age Kurling and Sitting Netball worked well in the large hall, with the New Age Kurling “rinks” growing in length as the participants learnt the skills required.
Goalball was in its own room, ideal for keeping the noise down. Sitting Volleyball was moved to the shade of some trees as sitting still in the sun was uncomfortable – oh the English weather! Boccia improved once the players moved their chairs to back onto the tennis net, as playing the other way round the balls ended up in the net or under it!
A key to these activities was the voluntary support from the Year 12 charity committee, whose members led each station, explaining the rules of each to the Year 8s. A big thank you to the committee for their volunteering and their promotion of the charity.
The Inclusive Kilometre raised an amazing £1,811 and the students experienced walking while blindfolded and being guided – another great learning experience.
As well as having a fantastically fun day, an incredible £4,300 was raised for Power2Inspire to help us continue our mission to embed inclusive sport in the sporting, education and community landscapes.
A HUGE thank you to the Perse. I am already looking forward to next year!
Charities Co-ordinator Emma Kenzie said:
“The Power House Games went really well. The sun was shining and pupils had a really enjoyable day. It’s really nice that John was here and that we were able to raise so much money for Power2Inspire.”
Inspired? Then Get Involved!
If you are interested in hosting a virtual PowerHouseGames in your school / college / company / community group then we would love to hear from you. AS you have read we have even found a way to make our PowerHouseGames a success in lockdown so don’t hesitate to get in touch and we can plan you very own PowerHouseGames!!
Click the button here to find out more.