Go Mobility, which provides free weekly sports sessions for people with disabilities, is supported each year by its ‘mini coaches’ from the school.
‘They come class by class and support us for a term each, running activities for adults with disabilities or health conditions, and at the end of that year, all the classes come together for a mini Para Commonwealth Games,’ said Nicky Will, director of communications for the Guernsey Sports Commission, which organises both the weekly sessions and the end of year celebratory mini games.
Being a mini coach for Go Mobility involves all manner of different tasks.
‘We’re the ones who do the running around. We pick up the footballs, the skittles. We reset the boccia sets. We line things up.
‘For some of our group users who may be visually impaired, we do things such as give them verbal directions, or we may make a sound in a certain area in order to help with aim,’ said year five teacher Sandra De Sousa.
‘The kids love it. It very quickly becomes the highlight of their week, the highlight of the year, and for a lot of our children, it’s the highlight of their time at St Martin’s.’
Ms Will said the whole environment benefitted from having the children acting as mini coaches.
‘They learn a lot about some of the challenges that people with disabilities have when trying to access activities. But also, being children, they’re really open, so they don’t mind asking, “Why are you in a wheelchair?” And just speaking to them and just finding out a bit more about them. So, I think it’s really good for the children. And the adults love it because they get to have fun. They get to be active. They get to try some games.’
For their end of year celebration, the children were organised into nine teams, each representing a chosen Commonwealth country, and took part in a series of inclusive sporting games alongside the adults from the Go Mobility sessions they had been mini coaches for.
‘It’s about having fun. It’s about including the adults in the games. The children are scoring the games, but they’ve also been challenged to make sure that the adults with disabilities get involved, that they score as well,’ said Ms Will.
At the end, the winning team was awarded the Paul Wheatley Trophy, named after one of the founders of Go Mobility, who died earlier this year.
‘It’s quite emotional, but it’s special to see so many of the children still involved and committed to helping these adults,’ said his wife Jacqui, who was present at the mini games to see his legacy continued.
‘Paul loved all this. I think it was his favourite thing he did of all the different charity things that he did. It was just like his baby. And he really loved the development of this with the children and the school.
‘It meant a lot to him.’
You need to be logged in to comment.