Paralympic silver medallist Andy Lapthorne visited a school in West London last week to encourage more children with special educational needs to take up tennis.
The visit was a result of a partnership between the Tennis Foundation, LTA and Youth Sport Trust to pilot an inclusive format of tennis aimed at engaging more special education needs pupils from mainstream schools to take part in competitions alongside peers of all abilities.
Northolt High School in Middlesex has been working with their local partner schools to provide testing and feedback of the competition format over the past five weeks.
Northolt is one of 50 lead Project Ability Schools across the England, who have been selected for their established expertise in engaging young disabled people and who work across a cluster of local schools to improve the quality, and provision, of sport and physical activity for disabled pupils.
The competition format is Inclusive Mini Tennis Red, which is based upon tennis' existing priority for primary schools within the Sainsbury's School Games and the essence of the game – smaller courts, nets and rackets and low compression balls – will be very familiar to those involved in the delivery of local schools competition already.
Inclusive Mini Tennis Red includes further adaptations to the rules, such as two bounces, a lower net or 'throw serves' depending on the needs of the young people taking part and aims to allow those who cannot easily access the traditional format of the game to get involved.
To support schools involved in the pilot, local coaches from West Middlesex Lawn Tennis Club ran a five-week coaching programme which culminated in a festival day of competition held last week at The Ellen Wilkinson School, Ealing.
Lapthorne, who is the world No.4 in singles and doubles in the quad division, met some of the pupils at The Ellen Wilkinson School and took part in filming for an online resource that will be part of the national rollout of this competition format from early 2013 onwards.
The Australian Open doubles winner also showed off his Paralympic medal and took part in a question and answer sessions with pupils.
"It was fantastic to have Andy attend a schools festival so soon after his success at the Paralympic Games providing inspiration to the pupils involved in the pilot of this new competition format. Many thanks to all the schools, teachers and pupils for helping us shape our competition offer for special educational needs pupils and we look forward to this format being rolled out nationally through the Sainsbury's School Games from next year," said Paul Williams, Schools Tennis Manager at the Tennis Foundation.
"I really enjoyed my visit to the Ellen Wilkinson School last week and it was great to see how young people are getting involved in tennis, inspired by the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer. This adapted and inclusive format of the game makes tennis accessible to any young person regardless of their ability or previous experience," added Lapthorne, who won a silver medal in the quad doubles with partner Peter Norfolk at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.
Share