Blog

For several years, Seashell Trust's college staff led the way in developing competitive sports and athletics programmes for students with learning disabilities in the local area, running an annual sports day between Greater Manchester sixth forms and FE colleges. With a mix of special and mainstream colleges, as well as a range of physical, learning, communication and sensory needs, young people delighted in the chance to test their skills against their peers - in an environment which focused entirely on what they can achieve!

This year, we were thrilled to work in partnership with Natspec for the Regional Games. Almost 200 students made their way to Sportcity in Manchester, although several colleges were unable to join us on the day, shortly after the tragic events at the Manchester Arena.

Once there, young people found their teams where they would work with people representing different colleges and take part in different athletic activities. Challenges included running, wheelchair racing and basketball throwing. In a change from previous years, this year young people's scores for javelin, shotputt and bean bag throwing were recorded to compare against the other regions, which will then determine the national winners!

As always, the day was filled with remarkable achievements - even for those athletes who didn't come in first place. One young man, Jonathan from Royal College Manchester, competed in the wheelchair races with a member of staff pushing him for the first three quarters of the track. Before they crossed the finish line, staff stepped back and talked Jonathan through the process of reaching down to push the wheel forward, propelling himself the rest of way to the end where he was met with cheers and high fives from staff and volunteers!