Stevenage special school taking on 7,000-mile Kadoma challenge to raise funds for trampoline therapy room
Greenside pupil Ben Newell, teaching assistants Sarah Cullip and Dave Finch, Kyle Hosier and sports coach Rob Grundy with their pedometers used to count their steps each day towards the Stevenage to Kadoma challenge - Credit: Archant
Students and staff at a Stevenage special school have been walking, wheeling, running and cycling thousands of miles to help launch a fundraising bid to pay for a new trampoline therapy room.
Greenside School sports coach Rob Grundy with the map of progress as staff and students at Greenside School are collectively walking/running/wheeling the distance from Stevenage and its twin town of Kadoma in Zimbabwe - Credit: Archant
Greenside School, which caters for pupils aged from two to 19 with a range of complex, severe and profound learning disabilities, began clocking up the miles on Monday last week, and hope to reach a 7,014-mile target – the distance to Stevenage’s twin town of Kadoma in Zimbabwe – by Thursday.
“It’s been great,” said the school’s sport coach Rob Grundy, who has been plotting everyone’s progress using pedometers and marking the daily distance on a map of the world.
“We’ve tied in the challenge with Euro 2016 – each class is a different country so they are learning about that at the same time.
“I originally set a goal of £2,000 but I’m not sure how realistic that is – hopefully we will raise £1,000, although the rebound therapy room will cost a lot more.
“We want to build one so we can offer all of our pupils the chance to receive a great and unique type of therapy that could benefit them in many ways.
“Rebound therapy is a form of physiotherapy and uses trampolines to provide therapeutic exercises to people with a wide variety of disabilities and additional needs.
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“It can help to facilitate and promote movement and balance, increase or decrease muscle tone, help relax pupils, improve sensory integration, · Improve concentration and even improve communication skills.
“The money raised will go some of the way towards the cost of this great facility, although we have more fundraising events planned.”
To make a donation to the school, which is also looking for sponsors to help raise the cash needed, visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/greenside.
