Umar Syed from Little Heath was recognised for his development in sport when he picked up the Jack Petchey Panathlon Hasan Ahmed Sporting Achievement award.
It celebrates his growth in confidence and self-esteem thanks to his experience in Panathlon events and other sporting activities, captaining the LYG Boccia team and playing a key role at the Essex Table Cricket tournament. He has achieved WJEC Entry Level 2 in PE for both Individual activities – Boccia and Team Competitive Activities and Table Cricket, a remarkable achievement for a semi-formal student. He also took part in the school residential Arundel Castle Cricket trip last year, which really supported his mental, health and physical wellbeing as well as promoting his independence and self-help skill development.
And before the school year ends, he and the other students at Little Heath School are still hoping for more medals and certificates courtesy of Panathlon.
Their recent school sports day was a huge success, led by Panathlon’s Harry Bowtell from Panathlon and Santha Patel, the school’s PE Coordinator, with all classes from years 7 to 11 attending and having fun, trying different activities, taking turns and working together – which can prove a challenge for many of the students with more complex needs.
“Panathlon has had a huge impact on the ability of our SEN students enabling them to be involved in and access sport in both a competitive arena externally, whole school events and individual impact stories,” says Santha.
“The children love competing in these events and always return with big smiles on their faces and are so proud of any medals or certificates. The value of the competition experience showed as it gave our semi-formal classes the confidence and ability to succeed in passing the WJEC Entry Levels 2 and 3 moderation in Boccia and Table Cricket which is a huge achievement for these students.
“The swimming gala was one of the best competitions; it gave our students an opportunity to be part of a special event and one of our very autistic students the confidence to swim a length wearing his buoyancy aid independently. He is progressing so much in his swimming now.
“The Multi-skill, Boccia, Kurling, Polybat activity packs/cards that were produced during the pandemic are a great teaching resource which the school still uses today; students really enjoy and engage in all the activities plus they are good for other teachers to use.”
