iNet Student Leadership Event
Written by Jack Gillum (Year 10 student)
Wednesday 16th March – Ysgol Dyffryn Taf
On Wednesday Mrs Craddock took a group of year 10 pupils Jack, Ben, Liam, Blane, Charlotte on a trip to Ysgol Dyffryn Taf in Whitland. We spent our day learning Olympic and Paralympics values and learning new ways.
Once we arrived we signed in and we got started. First of all we started by getting toknow who everyone was and we found out things about them such as their name, what school they were from and what we liked doing in and out of school. Next in these groups we took part in a quiz all about the people that are involved with the Olympics and Paralympics past and present. Then we looked at the Olympic and Paralympics values and what they meant. The values are respect, excellence, friendship, courage, determination, inspiration and equality. We then had a break in which we used to talk to people. After the break we got back into our school groups and discussed the Olympic values and what we did in our school which fitted in with the Olympic and Paralympics values. Then we had a quiz about Beijing 2008 and how different athletes did. After we marked the quiz, we did not do very well, we moved on and had a presentation by a Paralympics star which was Graham Edmunds who is a two time Paralympics gold medallist in swimming. He then told us how his life changed in 2000. He was in a road accident and was told that he would not walk again. He then went on and told us how he was told he would not walk again, but he was determined he prove them wrong. Although seriously disabled, in 2004 Graham qualified for the Paralympics. Following extensive training, his debut on the world scene, he proved his worth and ability as one of the top athletes in the world by achieving a Gold Medal and World Record with the 4 x 100m Freestyle swimming team. His success continued in the World Championships in Durban 2006 with another Gold and World Record. In the Beijing Paralympics 2008 he achieved another Gold and World Record exceeding most people’s expectations, proving once again that nothing is too far out of his reach. During his presentation we were shown a video on how he ended up winning a gold medal.
Next we had lunch, after lunch we stayed in our school group we started to think on how we could bring the Olympics and Paralympics into our school and the values as well. We then thought what we could do which would include everyone and would let everyone be involved even if they are not sporty. So we decided to get each key stage to raise £2012 by 2012 and we are going to see how much disability awareness people in our school have.
