It was another “striking” day in Essex on Tuesday 1st October as schools from Basildon competed in a thrilling Panathlon ten pin bowling event in their efforts to reach the first-ever Panathlon final in the discipline.
“It’s great to see other children, with autism, with ADHD, to show that we’re all normal and we can achieve no matter what needs we have,” Simon Ash, teacher of the deaf at Mildmay Primary School, told Panathlon reporter Cat Goryn.
“The Panathlon has been really helpful for us,” added Mrs Rivas of Buttsbury Junior School – who has also taken groups to Panathlon swimming events.
“This is for children that aren’t always picked for being the best at sport or academically. This is for children just being inclusive and being given the opportunity to have a bit of fun, get out of school and learn to do things they would never have the opportunity to do.
It’s beautiful to see these children who sometimes might find things difficult in school to come together, work as a team and be so supportive of each other and you see the children really come out of themselves, and it’s a really, really happy time to be here.”
One of her pupils, Joey, was delighted with scoring three spares and notching 141 points overall to win the competition – describing their feeling as “overjoyed”.
And the fun continued into the afternoon, with Paula Osbourne, Senco at Somers Heath Primary School, saying: “I think it’s really important for children with all different SEND to access competitive events but also just to enjoy amongst their peers like most children in school do, real sport, real competition and real fun.”
She added: “This is the second year I’ve come to the bowling and they thrive here and talk about it all year and are desperate to come. Children will keep coming to tell me for ages how many spares, how many strikes they got, and parents from last year still tell me how much their children want to go bowling on the weekend, so the experiences that Panathlon are able to give these children, in addition to what their parents do, that’s what’s key: that they are getting to do it with their peers in school are really important to them and they get to be successful and they are here being successful getting strikes and spares and are having a good time in their friends.”
It’s no wonder that one of her pupils, Isaac, summarised it with the simple words: “My day has been great.”
Shelly Wheeler, learning mentor and nurture lead at St Anne Line Catholic Junior School in Basildon, brought a group of children aged between eight and ten from the nurture group, all of whom experience emotional barriers to their learning, and some of whom were trying out bowling for the very first time.
“I think our school shines when it comes to encouraging others and empathy for others,” she said. “They love to cheer each other on. Not once have they said, ‘Will we get a medal? Will we do this?’ They are just happy to be here. So I think it’s really lovely they can do that.”
Jessica was part of that group and clearly loved the experience, saying: “Bowling is my favourite! Bowling on the fun scale is 10 out of 10.”
And Claire Parish, Senco of West Leigh Infant School, described the day as “an amazing event”.
“Every year it excels,” she said.
“The children that we’ve brought today sometimes are a little bit reluctant to take part in activities or sometimes find bigger groups overwhelming so a nice small group at the bowling is really good and also good to take part in something when they wouldn’t have that opportunity in school.”
