Thirteen students aged between 12 and 15 from Barking Abbey School became the latest cohort in a long line of Panathlon Young Leaders from the school over the last eight years.
Today they very successfully led the East London and Essex Deaf and Hearing Impaired Xtend competition, at Harrow Lodge Sports Centre in Havering.
Forty-three Deaf and HI students – from Sweyne Park School Rayleigh, St Clere’s School in Standford-le-Hope, Great Baddow School in Chelmsford and Lister School from Newham – took part in a range of sporting activities, all marshalled and officiated by the Young Leaders of Barking Abbey School.
Caroline Constable, Deputy Head of the PE Department at Barking Abbey, said, “We have worked with Panathlon for a number of years and they are fantastic at providing opportunities for our students to lead sporting activities for young people with varying needs and this gives the chance to break down the barriers that may exist between two different community groups.
“It also supports the development of our leaders’ lifelong skills and for them to adjust their forms of communication to support varying needs. Additionally it teaches them how to adapt sporting activities so that everyone can be engaged, whilst they have positive experiences and want to continue to be engaged beyond the school setting.”
Barking Abbey have provided hundreds of young leaders over many years, all benefiting from those lifelong transferable skills and the many and various Panathlon activities they have been involved in.
Just in the last few months their students have supported four competitions in East London, including Primary Panathlon, Boccia competitions and Xtend, and a national Swim Final at the London Aquatic Centre in the Olympic Park.
One of today’s Young Leaders, Elizabeth, said, “As Leaders we think it is a great opportunity to help other children and improve our leadership skills at the same time. This is our first time working with deaf and hearing impaired children and it has been great fun!”
Everyone at Panathlon would like to thank Barking Abbey School for being so generous and also especially Caroline Constable for all her personal support over the years.
After a tight competition the winners (below) were Sweyne Park from Rayleigh, with St Clere’s School as runners-up.
Many thanks to the Jack Petchey Foundation for supporting the Young Leaders programme in London and Essex.
A gallery of pictures is available here.
