Today Links had the great opportunity to go into Prince Edwards School to deliver a showcase session alongside one of the teachers for the Matalan TOP Sport training that Links hosted recently. This event had an amazing special guest, Sir Steve Redgrave who is an ambassador for the Matalan TOP Sport initiative.
The afternoon started with an assembly, introducing Sir Steve to the children and helping them to better understand why it was such a great privilege to have him within the school. This started with a short video showing his achievements as an athlete but also as a parent. The floor was then opened for a short question and answer session with some brilliant and inspiring questions but also with some hilarious ones….at least we now know a little more about Sir Steve’s pets! The children were then handed awards for those who had been exceptional all year in various parts of their school lives and the awards for this were presented by Sir Steve himself. This was especially nice to see from someone who is used to being on the receiving end of awards ceremonies but made it a much more memorable experience for the children. A final extra special award was handed to two exceptional young boys. This award is rarely given out and is reserved for those who have achieved exceptionally well or who have worked hard through tough times. This is the Olympic spirit Sir Steve was talking about during the assembly and hopefully this will pass onto the other children.
The event was then moved down into the gym where it was split in half so that the children could experience a dance based session and a gymnastics/game based session based around the Matalan TOP Sport work cards. Sir Steve went around both activities helping the children along and also joining in. This was even with some of the more embarrassing activities which you can see in the photo gallery. Some excellent animal impressions were shown by them all! Sir Steve got involved in an exciting game of modified football and netball and really helped inspire the children to work hard and put in 100% effort which they all did non stop for the full afternoon. As testament to how excited everyone was even as the clock went past 3 the children showed no signs of stopping and im sure would have carried on much longer. overall the afternoons events were a great inspiration not just to the children but hopefully to the staff and everyone involved.
Links would like to say a big thank you to everyone involved in today as without you all the afternoon would not have run as smoothly or been as exciting for the children. Also a great thank you to the children who came in and took part in everything without question and generally made it fun. One final thanks also has to goto Sir Steve Redgrave for being such a great ambassador to sport and also for being a huge inspiration to both the children and adults alike!
For the Photo Gallery click HERE