Help us get to the Nationals!
We are the Newham Sixth Form College (NewVIc) Ability Counts Football Squad, and we hope you can help us get to Nationals!
Our story
12 months ago we set up an Ability Counts Football squad for our students with moderate & severe learning difficulties.
The group changes every year with a new intake of Entry Level and foundation learning students, and acts as a fantastic opportunity for these young people with a myriad of learning difficulties to take part in a team sport.
Often for these students this is the first time they’ve been part of a sports team, and the transformation in personalities as they learn new communication skills, football skills and more importantly how to make new friends, is immense.
Our project (where will the money go & what will it mean).
After just one year of setting up our Ability Counts football squad, our team of 12 players has been selected to represent the London Region at the AoC Sport National 7-a-side Championships at the University of Bath in March 2015!
The college sport National Championships is one of the largest annual sporting events in England, involving over 1,800 college students and 200 staff.
Students qualify for the championships through regional tournaments that took place earlier this term. As well as competing in their chosen sport, students compete for points for their region. The region whose teams and individuals accumulate the most points wins the prestigious Wilkinson Sword trophy.
The 2015 National Championships take place in Bath on 27-29 March 2015, and cost £350 per student (accommodation, entry fee, transport, regional kit and 1:1 staffing support).
These Ability Counts Footballers don’t often get the same opportunities as mainstream students, and as such going to a tournament of this nature means so much more than just football…
Many of these students can’t afford football boots, and practice weekly in trainers or pumps in the college sports hall. Your help will allow us to support them in having their own boots to play on a full size grass pitch for the first time.
For many of these students it will be the first time they’ve stayed in a hotel room independently, and getting used to using new facilities in the hotel room is an adventure in itself (shower controls / light switches / remembering room key cards when leaving the room etc).
All of these students need assistance budgeting and using their spending money in the university shop, to ensure they have lunch each day. A skill much needed away from the sports pitch.
Learning to take the losses with the wins is a major part of this tournament, facing competition from across the country this takes a whole new level of team work.
The entry fee and accommodation for the squad will cost £2,250 and we’ve set this as our minimum target.
