NORTHWEST SCHOOLS PARTAKE IN FIRST SPECIAL NEEDS INTER-SCHOOL SPEED BADMINTON TOURNAMENT

West Kirby Residential School, Wirral, hosted the first special needs inter-school Speed Badminton tournament on the 11^th December 2008. Children from West Kirby Residential, Cloughwood School Northwich and St Christopher’s School Wrexham took part in the one day event, with the 22 kids aged 13-17 taking to the dynamic racket sport with rapturous effect.

The tournament took the shape of a group format with every competitor playing each other in their group once, with the top two from each group plus the four best runners-up advancing to the knockout stage.

The day was a great success and all children thoroughly enjoyed their time on court with the teachers praising their pupils’ attention, behaviour and sportsmanship. As the event wore on the number of pupils left in the competition whittled down and although this tournament was focused on the taking part, the competitive streak of the remaining players was really beginning to show. The eventual winner of the tournament was 17yr old Tee Jay Wallace of St Christopher’s, with Robert Armstrong of West Kirby Residential coming in second place, and Cloughwood’s Kyle Cave taking third spot.

Mrs. Morgan of West Kirby Residential School said what a pleasure it was to host the tournament and what a great opportunity this is for more North West schools to get involved, not only for their pupils enjoyment but also to improve their hand-eye co-ordination, physical fitness and self-esteem.