MORE than 40 pupils from nine different primary schools across Blackburn with Darwen took part in a disability football festival – the first time pupils had a chance to take part in such an event.

Schools used their Sports Premium funding to allow the Blackburn and Darwen School Games team and Sporting NRG Limited to organise and deliver the event at Queens Elizabeth Grammar Schools (QEGS) Sports Centre. The event turned out to be a great success and was supported by the school. “We received some great feedback from both pupils and teachers,” said school games organiser Andrew Mercer.

“The festival was aimed at key stage2 pupils with a disability or special educational needs, to develop the pupil’s social skills, we split all the pupils from different schools into 3 teams; Blackburn, Bolton and Blackpool.”

The event kicked off with a warm up which was ran by one of the coaches by Sporting NRG, all the pupils jogged round the hall in various directions and had to listen for instructions. Various commands were shouted which had an action to them which all related to football and interacted with the pupils; John Terry meant jump up and head the ball, Ronaldo was dive on the floor.

The pupils then completed three different stations which included football skills such as: passing, dribbling and shooting. The event concluded with a friendly non-competitive tournament, and then followed by a presentation where every pupil received a certificate.

Amy Dixon from Sporting NRG said: “I enjoyed watching all the pupils from different schools work together as a team by encouraging one another, they all had a chance to show off their ability and skill throughout the afternoon. “It was great to see them have fun and hopefully the event is something we can look to do for next year”.

Mercer added: “A big thank you must go to QEGS for the use of the facility on the day, and also to the coaches from Sporting NRG who delivered the sessions on the day.”

n Blackburn Community Sports Club has a Disability Football section and train on a weekly basis at QEGS Sports Centre (where the event was held) on a Saturday afternoon 12:00pm – 1:00pm and has the occasional tournament. It currently has children and young adults with a variety of disabilities and a wide range of ages. Anyone interested can bring their child down, whether they attended the festival or not.