Posted by Lucie Gwilt at 02:06 on 27 June 2016
Over the last three weeks Badminton Wales and Wales
Squash and Racketball have been
providing disabled pupils with exciting opportunities to learn new
racket skills in an enjoyable, active environment. Woodlands High School
is a special school based in Ely, an area of Cardiff that experiences a high
degree of social challenge and high levels of deprivation. Pupils of the school
deriving from all over the city, are aged from 11-19 years old, with a range of
learning difficulties and disabilities. Coaches from Badminton Wales and Wales
Squash and Racketball are going into the school every Friday over the course of
4 weeks to provide sessions to Year 9 and Year 12 pupils. During the
sessions we will cover a variety of racket skills, warm up routines, basic
movements and eye-ball skills; within a fun, active and competitive environment.
The sessions
at Woodlands High School are to provide the pupils with a taster of what is on
offer with the hope that they enjoy and decide to continue playing badminton or
squash outside of school and in their personal time. Therefore, pupils will be
given the opportunity to join their local badminton or squash club in order to
continue to improve their racket skills and physical development. This
Friday the coaches will go into the school assembly and present medals and
certificates to those pupils who participated. After completing the 4 weeks,
the pupils will be offered a day out at Sport Wales National Centre in
September, where they will be given the opportunity to use the badminton and
squash courts. They will also be invited to enter the Welsh 4 Nations Para
Badminton Championships that take place in August.
Angela
Stevens, Badminton Development Officer for South Wales said: “It’s great to be
able to deliver this initiative which helps create opportunities for children with learning and physical disabilities. We hope to deliver more of these collaborative racket sessions
across South Wales and are already in the planning process of replicating the
sessions in Ysgol y Deri in Penarth”.
For further
information on this or any other badminton development query please contact Angela Stevens, Badminton Development Officer for South Wales on 07772396360 or email at Angela.Stevens@badminton.wales