The Albion Foundation hosted their SEND Festival for local provision schools, themed to celebrate Euro 2024 on Wednesday, June 19 at Portway Lifestyle Centre.
The Festival saw local provision school students get creative to design banners in the theme of their designated countries ahead of the celebration.
Each station was themed to a different stadium hosting games at the tournament and provided a unique and fun sporting experience with a range of activities on offer – tailored to each child’s needs.
Disability sports coach, and Festival lead Rob Elliott believes the day was a successful one.
“It’s important to celebrate the Euro’s, celebrate the Foundation and the good work we’ve done within the schools this year,” Elliott said. “We’ve got five schools representing 10 different countries from the competition.
“We’ve tasked them to come in different colours to portray that and to have some fun. They’ve been doing lots of arts and crafts at schools in the run up to it.
“We wanted to see them let their imagination run free and be creative with the ways they’re learning about the teams and players. It’s good for school geography to know where the countries are, what colours they wear, the flags and understanding the competition.
“Mingling with other schools is great for them too, they can make new friends and experience the environment. It’s a trip for them and the school, they get to work with different coaches rather than their usual one.
“We’ve tried to incorporate each stadium at the tournament and give them a new sport at each station. We want to give everyone a taste to try different activities.
“They’ve all got smiles on faces, the staff are happy and everyone’s enjoying it. We’ve got the resources to transition from station to station.”
Ms Adams, teacher at Rowley Hall Primary School was delighted to see so many of her students happy within the free flowing, active environment.
“We’ve absolutely loved it here today,” Adams said. “It’s given them a chance to come and excel, and show different skills we’ve learnt at school.
“It’s lovely, they’ve created flags and expressed different ideas. Our school had England and Germany so they’ve been creative in that.
“It’s fantastic, we came out and were met by very friendly people who showed us where to go. The actual activities have engaged our pupils very well.
“The 10-minute slots at each station were gresat for concentration. The day has been brilliant and we’ve all really enjoyed it.
“We can take this experience back to school and those children can bring back information for the other children.”
Thumbs up from the adults, but what about the children? Participants Misty and Logan say they enjoyed testing themselves with new skills.
“We’ve been doing fun sports activities,” Misty said. “The one I most enjoyed was dodgeball and the treasure run.
“I got to work at a team and I really love doing it. I enjoyed dodgeball because I got someone out and I never do.”
“I think I’ve learnt a lot about teamwork,” Logan added. “I don’t really work as a team, I’m more of a solo person but I’ve started to work with other people at the festival.”