INCLUSIVE SPORTS - ' YOU CAN DO IT '
A club which will facilitate the provision of inclusive extracurricular activities for children who have Down Syndrome and other special needs who attend primary schools in the Horsham District.
Purpose:
The main aim of You Can Do It! is to provide meaningful recreational sports and arts courses for primary school aged children which are accessible to children with special needs who are educated at mainstream primary schools. Although the club intends to allow primary school aged children with Down syndrome to access extracurricular activities with their school peers and siblings, we will endeavour to include any child who wanted to take part in the courses we run.
You Can Do It! will give children such as those with special needs the opportunity to experience activities such as drama, art, music, football, gymnastics, trampolining, swimming in an integrated environment with their siblings and friends from mainstream primary schools. It is also important for mainstream children to have the opportunity to take part in such activities with their siblings/friends who have special needs.
When appropriate support is provided an inclusive mainstream education for children with special needs can be beneficial all round. You Can Do It! will provide the facilities and necessary support for the children to acquire new skills by participating in recreational activities which are currently accessible to mainstream peers but not always at present open to them due to lack of appropriately trained staff or support staff.
Currently there are is one local special needs club providing a variety of sports activities to older children/young adults with special needs and there is a “playgroup” type club providing general play activities available once a month during term time for younger children, but there are few specific recreational activities available to mainstream primary aged children which are accessible for children with special needs such as Down syndrome. Horsham District Council are working with You Can Do It! To increase the number of accessible and inclusive activities.
Contacts:
You Can Do It! parents/carers of children with special needs will also meet regularly for general support. For further information or to join us at one of our informal coffee morning/support meetings or if you would just like to contact an existing parent member for a chat please email Caroline Johnston on carolinemjohnston@btopenworld.com
We would also love to hear from parents/carers of younger or older children with Down syndrome or other special needs, if you have experience which you could feel we could benefit from, or from professionals who feel they could support us in any way.