Jigsaw pupils take on challenge for Sport Relief

All pupils have a diagnosis of autism and attend Jigsaw school, a specialist resource that educates and supports children and young people diagnosed with this perplexing lifelong disorder, based on Dunsfold Park in Surrey.

With one on one teaching in place at the school, the pupils weren’t short of staff to play against and in total 4 teams pulled on their sports kit and took to the gym to take part in two short matches. The first match, a 4-aside, between a mixed team of younger pupils and teachers and proved surprisingly evenly matched. The final score was 7 to Team Surrey and 12 to Team Olympics. The second match involving a team of older pupils against a team of teachers was, again, very close with the pupils victorious and a scoreline of 20 goals to 9 goals.

The football proved a great highlight of the day amongst a number of different activities taking place across the School designed to accommodate all pupils’ particular needs and abilities. Other games included a Netball Session led by one of our teachers who plays to national level; Dance Sessions, where pupils learnt the moves to the official Sport Relief track from Little Mix, run by another staff member who also runs professional yoga and dance classes; Healthy Eating Sessions; Walking a Mile at Alfold Hall fields and a Healthy Foods sale. Pupils and staff dressed in red and/or sporty outfits for the day of fun and Sport Relief activity kits were also available throughout, packed with games, stickers, on-line activities and worksheets for pupils to enjoy.

Qualified Teacher, Adriana Borzecka, is responsible for organizing links with the wider community and planned out the day. She explained “The purpose of the day was to enable all our pupils here at Jigsaw to contribute to the Sport Relief effort and every pupil had the opportunity to participate in at least one of the activities on offer. Many of our children are very aware of Sport Relief as a charity and understand that our day was part of a wider set of activities going on across the country. It was, therefore, very important to us that they felt they could join in as well. The day has been a huge success all round - and I’m particularly impressed the pupils beat the staff at football....that will take us sometime to live down!!!!”

Jigsaw are still counting their donations throughout the day but have already made over £100 for Sport Relief.

For press enquiries or more information about Jigsaw, please contact:

Kate le Feber on [email protected] or visit www.jigsawschool.co.uk

Alternatively, follow us on Twitter @jigsawtrust

Report and picture contributed by Jigsaw CABAS® School.