A team of colleagues from JSS showed their support of the Panathlon charity by volunteering at the North London Xtend & Primary Finals on June 9th.
The Peter May Sports Centre hosted a morning Xtend Final with five secondary schools and 33 competitors – and the afternoon saw the Primary Final with five teams and 39 competitors.
The winners in the morning were Greig City Academy in Hornsey, North London, Copthall in second and Kelmscott in third place.
Mrs Alice Pryor, the teacher in charge from Greig City, said, “It’s been an incredible event, up to the usual high standard of all Panathlon competitions we attend. It boosts the children’s confidence as they realise they can all achieve and they are not different to everyone else.”
One of the winning students said, “I feel for the first time there are other people like me!”
Building on last year’s volunteer day and the incredible fundraising done to date, JSS have provided over £20,000 worth of funds to support Panathlon’s work in the last year. This includes staff making monthly salary sacrifices direct to the charity – and one employee Victoria Karpinski being part of Team Panathlon in April and running the London Marathon.
JSS marketing manager Sophie Carrillo said, “We are very proud to support Panathlon and we have seen today once again first hand the impact the charity has on young people with special needs and disabilities.”
The JSS volunteers learned how to officiate the sports in the morning before any competitors arrived and then carried out their duties and organised the competition and scoring during the day, with the winners and runners-up receiving their medals, certificates and trophies in due course.
JSS’s Aimee Crompton-Smith said, “It was great to learn the adapted sports and then deliver two different sporting competitions throughout the day for so many children.”
In the afternoon Barnfield Primary won the North London Primary event, with Martin Primary in second and Oakhill in third.
