Former Paralympian, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, and former NBA Basketball player, John Amaechi OBE, helped celebrate the work of volunteers and centres at the Sports Leader’s UK’s ‘Give More. Become More’ which took place at the House of Lords Awards Ceremony on Thursday, 11 June 2015.
St John’s School & Sixth Form College (A Catholic Academy) was one of ten schools, and the only one from North East England, to get through to this stage. At the event, St John’s was awarded Leadership Academy of the Year Secondary School Category – Runner up, being commended for demonstrating exactly what Sports Leaders UK want to see in sports leaders. All the winners were recognised for providing excellent delivery of Sports Leaders UK’s awards and qualifications.
Sports Leaders UK showcased their asks for MPs and Lords in the document ‘A Blueprint for Youth Leadership’ with specific reference to recognising youth leaders’ role in the community, providing leadership opportunities and championing soft-skills.
The event was also used to highlight the work of Sports Leaders UK through the network of volunteers, centres and young leaders that has seen over 100,000 people become sports leaders and contribute over 420,000 volunteering hours in their community each year.
The Baroness highlighted the pivotal role young leaders play in their community and Richard Norman, Chief Executive said that ‘…the event was a great opportunity to showcase the achievements of so many young people who have participated in Sports Leadership Courses over the past year… they have gained valuable life and employability skills and become role models to their friends and communities.’
St John’s, Head of School, Lisa Byron, said ‘We are extremely proud of our PE staff and the students involved in the Sports Leaders UK courses. At St John’s we encourage a community spirit amongst all our young people and it is a great honour that the sports leaders’ achievements have been recognised on this occasion.’
Head of PE, Miss Jo Somers and her teaching colleague Mr Steve Smith.
