It was a great day and all who attended had a fantastic time. Some of the athletes have been identified to begin the road towards possible Olympic competition.

Well done to all who took part.

Colin Broughton

The Playground to Podium process creates a Pathway for talented athletes with a disability to access sport at Community, County and National Levels. The talent identification process is based on 10 tests which aim to highlight talent in various different areas including arm speed, leg strength, agility and coordination.

A pupil undergoes one of the agility tests
"The Playground to Podium framework outlines a set of interventions which collectively aim to support the achievement of a 5 hour offer for young disabled people, and ensure that those with a higher level of ability are identified and are able to access a talent pathway.
Playground to Podium focuses on the identification, development and support of talented young disabled athletes and players. The framework has been developed by the Youth Sport Trust, Sport England, UK Sport and the ParalympicsGB" (parasport website)

All the athletes undergo at least 8 of the tests with information then being inputted on the parasport website where their results are collated and the best athletes are then signposted towards the County Assessment Days which are attended by National Governing Bodies for Boccia, Table-Tennis, Wheelchair Basketball, Athletics and Football, aswell as swimming which will take place at a separate event. From this stage we would hope that some of the athletes will then become involved in representative pathways either at a County or National Level.

The event on Tuesday took place at the Devonshire Racquet and Health Club in Plymouth and was attended by over 100 pupils from both Special Schools and Mainstream Schools from across the city of Plymouth.

Each of the athletes took part in ten tests throughout the day, working in groups of eleven from different schools where the emphasis was on inclusion and also provided opportunities for integration and socialising amongst different schools. The activities were led by local Further Education students based at Plymouth City College and the groups each had a Further Education student with them taking them to each of the events and recording the results of their performances.

We were extremely privileged to be able to call on the huge presence that was the former Welsh International Rugby Union Captain Scott Quinnell. Scott spent almost all of the day with us, giving a hugely motivational speech in the morning and then spending the rest of the day with the athletes, talking to them, helping them and even competing with some of them.
Scott Quinnell with one of the athletes

The day was also attended by many members of the local media including local newspapers as well as BBC spotlight and as a result we have received a huge amount of publicity for the event and the young disabled athletes.

Not only has the event enabled us to begin to identify the young talented disabled athletes but, it has allowed us to access youngster who may not take part in sport outside of school and will help schools to achieve the 3 hour offer of Curriculum and extra-curricular PE.

As another exit route 5 disability sports clubs have been set up around the City and we are looking forward to many of these athletes attending these clubs on a regular basis.

Although this has been an extremely successful event which begins the LTAD pathway we are still hopeful that we will be able to gain access and create opportunities for participation for the rest of the 1000+ athletes with a disability within the City.

The next Identification day will take place in June of this year and will look at targeting other athletes who have not been able to access this opportunity.

The next stage for many of these athletes is the County Assessment Day which will take place on March 16th @ Brickfields in Plymouth where the athletes will undertake tests/tasters from various NGBs - ALL athletes that were selected should now have received a letter about this via their School/SSCO.

This is the culmination of a lot of hard work to bring this together and has required a team from both partnerships within the City and with Plymouth City Council's Sports Development Unit.

We have managed to secure the support of former Welsh International Rugby Captain Scott Quinnell who will be spending some time with us during the day. Scott himself only recently found out that he is dyslexic and he will be promoting this work on the day.

We are hoping to gain a huge amount of media attention for this event and the work that it represents.

This will not be a stand alone session but, will enable us to signpost these individuals towards appropriate clubs that are being set up around the city to ensure that they continue to particpate in physical activity.

If you have any questions about this day please do not hesitate to contact either myself or Martin Lees at Plymouth City Council SDU.

Disabled Cricket
Open Day Sat 5th Dec
If you are an aspiring disabled cricketer or disabled person that would like to try cricket, Devon Cricket Board are holding an open day for disabled people on Saturday the 5th of December from 10am - 4pm at the Sir Christopher Ondaatje cricket centre.
The day is open to people of all ages with physical and learning disabilities. The initial taster will lead to further coaching sessions in February and from this a team to compete in the ECB National County Championship in 2010. All you need to bring along is a will to have fun and exercise in a friendly atmosphere. The open day will be supervised by fully qualified England & Wales Cricket Board coaches. The Cricket Centre is fully accessible and refreshments are available.

Should you have any queries or wish to find out more details about the day please contact the cricket centre on 01392262509 and ask for either Matt or Perry, or e mail us at perry.sprung@devoncricket.co.uk or matt.theedom@ecb.co.uk

Devon Cricket Centre, University Of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter, Devon, EX4-4QN.

Further information will follow when we have more idea of the numbers for the day.

A panicful 3 days insued, sleepless nights, working weekends and displays going up all over the place. I found myself putting up a display in our entrance hall at 7.15am - crazy time to be in school and a very eerie one.

Anyway, we survived and are still working so, it can't have been that bad. Obviously I can not say too much as nothing is in the public domain as yet but, the goalposts have shifted massively and we are not sure what they are trying to achieve.

Good luck if it is your turn soon!!!

We would like to encourage as many Special Schools to take up the opportunities but, would also like SSCOs to encourage mainstream SEN/Disability pupils to attend these events.

We hope to have your support at these events where possible!!!

Thanks

Colin Broughton

If anyone has any contacts that can help with this project or any ideas to assist me please contact me asap. Thanks.