Yesterday, we were so incredibly lucky to have Anthony Cottrill, who is a tennis paralympian in school.
At the start of the day, the whole school gathered to attend a special assembly led by Anthony, who spoke to the children about how he became a paralympian sports player. He explained the result in leading him to be paralysed at the age of 23, but how this motivated him even more to achieve the goals he had planned. Being incredibly sports focused his whole life, he knew that being in a wheelchair was not going to stop him! He talked to the children about resilience and never giving up on their dreams. The children were then able to ask Anthony any questions they had in relation to his sport or him being paralysed.
Across the rest of the school day, each class took part in a 40 minute tennis lesson alongside Anthony. Each class was split in half where one half had the opportunity to try out his sports wheelchair, whilst the other half took part in different tennis exercises including; throwing and catching and balancing.
The children gained a lot of knowledge throughout the day on tennis as well as learning about other people’s lifestyles and achievements.
