Over the past 2 years, Mount Gilbert Special School has secured 3 separate grants from the Football Foundation. This has been possible by using School Sports Coordinators time provided by the School Sports Partnership programme to apply for the grants which has in turn enabled us to provide our students with greater opportunities both during and after school. Through the Football Foundation Small Grant Scheme we have secured professional coaching from the Crossbar Coaching team which has had a huge impact in school. Since starting at Mount Gilbert the Crossbar staff have become familiar faces around school.
Gavin Cowan from Crossbar:- 'At Crossbar Coaching part of our ethos is to use Football as a tool to help encourage children of all ages how to improve all aspects of their personalities such as confidence, teamwork and discipline as well as social and health issues.
This in mind, it has been extremely rewarding to work with the students at Mount Gilbert to have seen them develop hugely in many areas in and around football and it has been a privilege to be part of a team at the school that is working toward the same goal, we have together seen the benefits football can provide.'
Football has always been popular, but being a small special school it has never been easy to be involved with the mainstream school events as we can really only field a 7 a side team. As a result matches have been few and far between. Lynda Manson, the School Sports Coordinator has used her time to establish strong, sustainable links with other Special schools in the area, all of whom have experienced the same difficulties.
Our new found expertise is now regularly put into practice. So far we have hired a full sized sports hall for training sessions, played at the Prostar training centre and competed in the Telford schools Futsal tournament, as well as the Special schools Key stage 4 tournament recently held at HLC. We have also played against other schools at both key stages. It is hoped to set up a Special school football league in the near future. "Both at a school level and probably, more importantly, at an individual pupil level, the creation of the school football team has had a major impact. Pupils have developed a sense of belonging to the school through their involvement with the team. On match days there is such a buzz in the school with pupils desperate to be involved and keen to make sure that they behave well so as they get to go to the match.”
Keith Melville-Mount Gilbert School Our kit is supplied through the Football Foundation Kit scheme as is our new football posts. Our original posts were condemned, so we were relieved to receive funding through the goal post safety scheme, which now means the goalposts do not need to be carried in and out every day.
Andy Taylor from Shropshire FA commented; “This has been a great example of how funding can be accessed and spent to benefit those who are not currently participating. Football is a great tool to engage children to take part in physical activity and can provide a focus to children and offer the opportunity to progress through young leadership and volunteering.”
