London 2012 blog

It's 8am in the morning, you've been in a car for 3 1/2 hours, you've got a broken projector and a hall that is about to be filled with 180 primary school kids (who the headteacher has told you will either be hyperactive or exhausted because it's the penultimate day of term) waiting for you to deliver an assembly. Your idea of fun or your worst nightmare? 

Last Thursday, members of the LOCOG Education team and Communications team travelled to St. Peters Church of England Primary School in Caverswall, Staffordshire. Visits to schools are always very rewarding and entertaining but this one was particularly special as we were there to congratulate the school and especially one of its pupils, 10 year old Reece Berrisford, for winning a trip to the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games courtesy of Visa, as part of our Paralympic Handover education programme.

After meeting Reece for the first time, we set him his first task - meeting the press. Reece handled the photo shoot and questions from photo journalists like a true pro, telling the press all about why he is excited about the Paralympic Games and all about his new nickname - 'Beijing Boy'!

Projector now 'mended' (apparently projectors work better when they don't have their lens cap on...), Erin and I took to the floor to deliver an assembly about the London 2012 Games to all 180 4-11 year olds in the school. It became pretty obvious early on that this was a very switched-on bunch of young people - you know you're dealing with a good group when, when asked to name an Olympic or Paralympic sport, the children offer you 'Hammer throwing' (this came from a 5 year old!) and 'Wheelchair Curling'! The children were absolutely brilliant - not only did they seem excited about the 2012 Games, but they were enthusiastic, responsive and fantastically well-behaved.

After the assembly, we led an interactive workshop with Year 5 (9-10 year olds) to help them to develop their plans for celebrating Paralympic Handover, on the 17 September, within their school. Again, the class had lots of creative, but practical, ways for how they could celebrate the day. Some of their ideas included:

- hosting an assembly about the Paralympic Games for younger pupils, before the 17 September, to raise their awareness of Handover
- learning about and trying Paralympic sports
- creating flags and painting their faces as different flags from around the world
- learning how to say a few words ('Welcome', 'Hello' etc.) in different languages
- hosting a Paralympic Handover party with their local community to celebrate the moment the Flag is handed over

At the end of the session, their plans were written up and Year 5 is now responsible for leading their school's Paralympic Handover celebrations. We're looking forward to hearing what they do.

Thanks definitely need to go to all of the staff at St. Peters, and especially the head Mr. Dipple, for what was a very enjoyable and rewarding day. It was great to work with St. Peters to bring their Paralympic Handover planning to life. I am sure that the school and Reece in his role as a Young Reporter will do a brilliant job - Reece, for one, has already proved he's capable of meeting deadlines as he got his blog up on the site a whole 72 hours before me!

Finally, St. Peters are far from the only school, college or local authority planning their Paralympic celebrations. If you haven't visited our Paralympic Handover website already, then please do register and, if you're doing something to celebrate, please tell us about it so we can help to promote your involvement!