Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, PowerHouseGames
Cambridge College enjoys a PowerHouseGames
Luke Cavanaugh and Alex Parton, two second-year undergraduates from Gonville & Caius College (Cambridge University) suggested hosting a college version of our PowerHouseGames to learn how we can roll the model out to other universities. It all came together on Friday 28th February as 20+ students from the college joined 14 from Castle Special School and 12 from Quilters Junior School at the University Sports Centre.
It was a great success. Though smaller than some of our previous versions, this helped integrate the teams even more thoroughly, and encouraged some of the SEN students to join in faster than others had done in the past.
The Year 5s from Quilters, an Ofsted “Outstanding” school in Billericay, were fabulous ambassadors, defying their youth to be engaged and engaging. And rather good at the games. Michael Wade, their award-winning and inspirational head teacher, was thrilled: “They loved it. It was so good for them to visit the university sports centre and meet the students. Maybe their horizons will be lifted.”
We played goalball, new age kurling, boccia, walking football, sitting netball and touch rugby. A big thank you to Hilary Foord, rugby league university captain, who volunteered to run the touch rugby and brought the all important balls to play with. Further thanks to Catherine, Patrick and Jeremy, stalwart volunteers, who were prepared to get down and play! Mills & Reeve provided two volunteers, James Edmonds and Johannes Arens, who both coped admirably with being thrown into playing! And as ever a big thank you to James Powley, Alex Fox and the staff at the Centre for making it happen. Their excellent idea to remove three of the four curtains, opened up the hall and made it feel as one.
I add our thanks to the college, which by supporting Alex and Luke with a financial contribution enabled us to put the PowerHouseGames on.
Luke summed up his experience:
“It was fantastic getting involved with the Caius PowerhouseGames, both from a personal and a college perspective. Having worried about getting a strong enough turnout from our volunteers, the day saw new friends made within Caius as we were paired up, and experiences shared that genuinely made our volunteers’ weeks. The hall was full of laughter from start to finish, and group chats exploded afterwards with messages telling myself and Alex how fun they found it, how they were so glad that they got out of the library, and asking whether there would be another games. I learnt a lot about myself and how I work with people, as well as about my peers, as the best volunteers weren’t those that I expected them to be. All in all, the day was fantastic, and I hope to involve myself with the Games in the future.”
Everyone received a certificate, were encouraged to take their colourful T-shirt away with them and all had fun.
Alexandra Infants - talk and workshops
Fun for the Young - inclusive sports workshops at Alexandra Infants School
The young pupils at Alexandra Infants School in Beckenham, South London, had a fun morning playing inclusive sports.
I was invited to talk to this lovely small school by a parent of a boy with a partially formed hand and was welcomed by the excellent Deputy Head Maria Cenayko.
The assembly was very well received, the pupils sitting remarkably still and giggling at all the right bits. I was particularly pleased that one of the pupils with autism – the school has two classes in their “Autistic Specialist Provision” – worked out what I use my hook for! A very well deserved round of applause.
Each class of 30 had 30 minutes playing inclusive games with me. Their class teachers and teaching assistants helped out, so we could have three stations on rotation: new age kurling, target games and sitting netball. All were enjoyed, confirmed by the noise levels!
I learned that sitting netball needed to be made a collaborative rather than competitive game. The whole group had to get the ball from one low level basket to another. As the person with the ball couldn’t move that required the others to scoot or shuffle on their bottoms along the path and taught them to pass and move. To make it more complicated, I then insisted that everyone in the group had to touch the ball before a basket could be scored. They had to collaborate and include.
The two hours flew past. Great fun was had by all and I look forward to visiting again.
Hinchingbrooke School Leadership Training
Leadership training: Hinchingbrooke and Godmanchester schools
Sixteen sports leaders from Year 9 of Hinchingbrooke School, Huntingdon, had real fun while learning on Friday 22 November. They learned through play 5 new sports in the morning and then led a Power House Games for 60 Year 5s from Godmanchester Community Academy in the afternoon.
“No one was left on the bench” and rule No. 1 was joyously observed – Everyone had FUN!
All 5 sports – boccia, new age kurling, sitting volleyball, goalball and sitting netball – had their champions; they were all popular.
The sports leaders learnt these new games in the morning, helping to refine the rules of a new game, sitting netball, designed by Power2Inspire’s founder John Willis. And then in the afternoon, in teams of 3 they had to lead a group of 12 youngsters through a carousel of all 5 sports.
For the sitting netball they added an exclusion zone around the low hoops, so “dunking” was not possible and imposed a 3-second limit to holding on to the ball. This was possibly the most popular activity in the afternoon. Godmanchester’s PE co-ordinator suggested for their end of term sporting challenge they would use this as it was good for everyone.
The smiles and laughter were infectious. Despite a tight area, we were able to flex the games to fit the space and there was lots of cheering and encouragement.
If your school’s sports leaders or ambassadors (sporting knowledge or ability is definitely not required) would like to experience “Fun while Learning” please get in touch by clicking here.
The Sports Leaders were asked what they had learned:
“That you can change the rules so everyone can play and anyone whether they are disabled or not can play these sports.”
“That anyone can play these sports and have lots of fun!”
“How to include people that aren’t as confident. Also different types of sports that are way more inclusive.”
“How to coach younger kids. How to treat the younger kids. How to create a fair game.”
“How to interact with younger and different people. Help them out with stuff they’ve wanted to do.”
Felsted School Power House Games
Schools come together for inclusive sports day at Felsted School
We are delighted to “borrow” the report published in the Felsted School newsletter! It read as follows:
“Felsted (in association with Silver Screen Studio and Gilbert and Grays) organised the Felsted School Power House Games 2019. The games brought Felsted Prep School, Felsted Senior School, Cookes Spinney Primary School, Columbus School, Duncombe Prep School and Felsted Staff and Parents together to take part in an extravaganza of sport. Each team was made up of one member from each of the schools with an adult to run the team. The onus was on the team to work together to get the most out of every sporting activity. The diverse ability and ages of the team made for a wonderful morning of inclusive sport.
I would like to thank our Felsted parents for being such good sports and amazing ambassadors for the school, along with our own prep and senior school pupils who as always displayed sporting spirit and a kind heart. Our visitors were no less impressive and the pupils from Cookes Spinney and Columbus School certainly left with plenty of smiles. It was also great to see a fellow prep school in Duncombe, get so much from the day and thank you to their staff for bringing over such a great group of pupils.
Each team took part in 5 sporting activities, ably run by our very own Lower Sixth BTEC PE students and John Willis, Jememy Maklin and Patrick Gosling. John Willis works tirelessly for Power2inspire and it was again a pleasure to meet him today and work with him to present such a lovely event.”
Leadership Training with Chesterton Community College
Leadership Training with Chesterton Community College
Thanks to the iWill Fund and the High Sheriff of Cambridgeshire awards Power2Inspire visited Chesterton Community College on Friday 1 November to teach 17 young students that sport can be truly inclusive. They will be taking their new skills into Castle Special School to play these or other games with some students with complex needs.
The girls and boys played boccia, new age kurling (both competitive and imaginative), adapted basketball with low nets, skittles (two teams racing each other to knock as many pins down in a minute) and goalball. As can be seen from the photos, there was much laughter and many smiles, proving that learning can be fun.
