63 competitors took part in the Surrey Panathlon yesterday at Surrey Sports Park from the following schools – Portesbery, Ridgeway & St Josephs, Sunbury Manor & The Park and Philip Southcote & St Philips.
A great days competition and some close fought action saw the winning team of Philip Southcote due to their strength in winning Boccia, Table Cricket and Kurling. Sunbury Manor and The Park ran them close by winning Polybat and Athletics Field events. For a full set of results see here
We had an excellent group of 14 Young Leaders from Gordon’s School and additionally 5 from St Phillips School.
Read some of theexcellent feedback here –
Ridgeway School
“Our school were able to send 10 SLD students to the Surrey Panathlon today. They all loved being able to compete and there was just the right mix of events. Comments we’ve had from them have been, “We like it here” & “The other teachers at school won’t believe we won so much!“
St Joseph’s School
“We brought 4 ASD learners with us today. All of them have thoroughly enjoyed being able to complete in organised sport. The day was fantastic and catered for even the lowest of ability. It’s been a great inclusive and well organised day. Students have left with a sense of achievement and success with medals hanging round their necks.”
Philip Southcote School
“We brought a team of 10 pupils and they took part in all the sports: Boccia, New Age Kurling, Table Cricket & Polybat amongst others. In the words of our students, the day was awesome, fabulous and great! They won many medals including team gold in Boccia, Cricket & Kurling.”
LEADERS QUOTES
Kate Williams, PE Department, Gordon’s School
“Panathlon has been an incredibly valuable and worthwhile experience for our students. As sports leaders they have been given T-Shirts, roles of responsibility and the confidence to work with the competition. This event has been led very well by the Panathlon Team and the trust they have instilled in our young people has been wonderful. These type of events are really refreshing for our students to be a part of as it enhances their leadership skills. They have become more appreciative of how the Panathletes are cared for and the teachers who look after them on a daily basis. The leaders have worked well as a team, bonded over their experience and will definitely take home a lot from their learning today. We would love to do this again, thanks for inviting us to be involved.”
Andy Hill, St Philips School
“We have a group of 11 sports leaders this year. They have been completing the CSLA course to receive the accreditation and, more importantly for us, to increase their confidence and independence. Earlier in the year Panathlon invited us to help lead at their Multi-Sport competition. Firstly we were involved in the training day where the group mixed with other leaders from Chessington Community College and learnt how to officiate and support participants in various sports. This day was a really valuable day for our students for a number of reasons. From this, they then lead at the competition. I was really pleased with their work and more notably the burgeoning confidence that they showed.
They were then invited to take part in a second competition, this time in Guildford, today for the Surrey Schools. It has been really noticeable how much this group has progressed over the year. Where as in the first competition, many of the leaders were asking for my support throughout the day, today, they haven’t needed it or asked for it. Thanks for inviting our group to be involved. It has been a brilliant experience for them.”
James, events manager of Panathlon added, “I want to echo what Andy has said regarding his group of leaders. To illustrate, in Boccia, Kevin, one of the St Philips Leaders, has been standing in the middle of the court with the baton communicating the playing order, taking the centre stage. In Table Cricket, Mark has been leading with the scoreboard tallying up and communicating out the scores, the most important job in the officiating of that sport. The St Philips leaders really added to today’s event with their enthusiasm and desire to support the players.”
