After successfully completing their Boccia Young Leaders Award Carr Hill students have been putting their new found skills to good use by teaching the sport to others in the community and even challenging the local team to a game.
Boccia, which is a Paralympic sport, is a precision ball game similar to bocce, and related to bowls and petanque. The aim of the game is to throw a leather ball, coloured red or blue, as close as possible to a white target ball, or the jack.
10 year 11 students completed their award in September last year. As a result the pupils are now qualified to deliver training sessions. Each student funded their own qualification. Students from local specialist school, Pear Tree, were the first to accept Carr Hill’s offer of training. Carr Hill students gave up their free time to visit the school over an eight week period to help Pear Tree pupils learn the basics of Boccia.
Following on from this Carr Hill students were challenged to a game from local side Blackpool Boccia Club. Members of the team travelled to Carr Hill for the match which was played over two pitches with three games on each. With competitive play from both sides the teams ended with a 3-3 draw.
PE Teacher Mr Doughty said: “We came up with the idea of Boccia training to improve Carr Hill’s link with the local specialist school. Carr Hill has had a link with Pear Tree School for a number of years with pupils from Pear Tree having previously taken part in mainstream PE lessons, however we wanted to give the Year 11s the opportunity to do something ‘over and above’.
It has been incredibly enjoyable for Carr Hill and Pear Tree students to play Boccia together and we were delighted when the Blackpool Boccia Club got in touch about a game too. We are really pleased to have the opportunity to play Boccia with schools and clubs in the local community and hope to expand when and where we play Boccia next year.”
The Carr Hill students plan to continue playing the sport and hope to have a rematch with Blackpool Boccia Club in the near future as well as continuing to visit Pear Tree. The pupils have even set their sights on hosting a Boccia tournament for local specialist schools next year.
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