On Thursday 8th March a total of 55 children from Slated Row, Romansfield, White Spire, The Redway and Gatehouse Special schools attended a one day BISI festival at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes. The event was organised by Lesley Byrne, (SSCo for the Special schools) who also teaches at Slated Row. The event brought together students aged 10-17 with Emotional and behaviour problems, moderate learning difficulties and severe learning difficulties. The event was assisted by 10 Sports Leaders from Buckingham School who are all BISI trained Leaders.
Initially the participants all joined together to take part in a music led exercise warm up. The students jogged and jumped and stretched their bodies before having the day explained.
The day took the form of BISI activities in the morning in small groups. Each activity was led by a young leader. They rotated from activity to activity and practiced many different skills in isolated to complex situations as the morning progressed. The participants all mixed really well and were understanding when working with others with less skill or a physical disability.
In the afternoon most children opted to play in a tournament for their age group. The younger ones played doubles and the Secondary age played singles. The badminton matches were played in pools of 5 or 6 players with the winners of the three pools playing each other. The few who didn’t want to be competitive took part in more BISI activities with young Leaders.
Results were as follows:
BISI Key stage 2 Romansfield
BISI Key stage 3 White Spire Team A
BISI Key stage 4 Slated Row Team 1
Tournament results
Key stage 2 (doubles) Earl and Jacob , Romansfield School
Key stage 3 (singles) Josh, Gatehouse School
Key stage 4 (singles) Luke Stafford, Slated Row School
The day was a fulfilling experience for all involved.
Many Thanks go to Lesley Byrne who organised the festival!
