All schedules and information checked, double checked, agreed on then rechecked. The day was intended to be an ability day outside under the July sun. However like most events carefully planned for British summer it was held indoors. This did not seem to dampen the spirits of the children who seemed to be lively and full of beans.

Swasie Turner, MBE, the charity patron, held the Enable Me assembly, both captivating and motivating his audience.

And the rest of the team being as always lead by Nik, with Belinda, Craig, Seb, Chris and myself, Ilona and Helena as helpers.

I was a little apprehensive at the concept of trying to keep a class’ attention after being pumped full to bursting point with enthusiasm by wheelchair sports in the gym. THANKS FOR THAT NIK !

It was an extraordinarily busy day where it felt like most of the 1300 strong school attended, everybody in the team at the end seemed very weary.  Even Seb was losing his voice, on hearing this I'm sure from over where Nik and Chris were came a muffled giggle followed by muttered "This day gets better and better !"

Any worries I had soon vanished. Not a bunch of overexcited, misbehaving, thunderous youths

Faced instead by a quiet, civil and respectful group of young people who listened intently and asked some challenging questions .As it was a very hectic day I did not get time to see the wheelchair sports but gathered my information from enthusiastic children instead. Having unintentionally startled a quick thinking young lady who answered a quiz question, Iretorted with "You've played this game before". This was meant to be funny but youthful Sam looked horrified and was reassured by the teacher.

In one of the later sessions the children relaxed and I soon became a target for a full interrogation of questions! A few of which were a little deep to say the least. But to be honest it was all good fun.

I can only conclude from this that teenagers in today's generation get an extremely bad press, which I can't see how they can warrant this. At the end of my presentation I left the classroom and on the way back to the car, a couple of the children said to me "Thanks for explaining strokes, it really helped them". That was a particularly touching moment for me. One of the children guided me back to the car and on the way he explained how he know felt that he could understand the frustration of some of the disabilities faced by his relatives. This again was a very special moment for me, and only he knows who he is.

I usually write something about my previous past schooling and this blog will be no different. I seem to remember that the female PE teachers from my time looked like they were contestants for Communist Shot-put teams. Here, however, it was nothing like this........................Its easy to see why sport is popular…

Jonty Neve