Come and Try Day 2019

On Friday 31 May, The Special Education unit held their annual ‘Come and Try’ Sports Day for students with a disability. This was the 7th year the school has run the event and were blessed with excellent weather. The day is held to provide students with an opportunity to try sports that they may not have seen before or had the opportunity to participate in. In total there were 130 students from 5 schools all running, passing and rolling their way around with lots of smiles to be seen.

The sports on the day included Zen Bu Kan Kempo Karate, Special Olympics Tennis and Athletics, Central Coast Judo, NSW NRL, Mariners Soccer, NSW Wheelchair Roadshow, NSW Netball and NSW Cricket.

The school also uses students from the rest of the school to help as volunteers to lead groups around the activities through the day. During this process students get the opportunity to be ambassadors for the school and develop leadership skills in communication and group encouragement. Some of the volunteers also have the opportunity to practice hospitality skills in delivering coffee and sandwiches to sports coaches, whilst others get to assist the sports coaches directly learning valuable skills from the coaches experience.

As part of this community experience there were donations made by Coles (bread), Woolworths (sandwich fillings), Aldi (water) and Betta Fresh (fresh Fruit) supplying some very hungry students at recess and lunch. Our thanks go out to them for this. A special mention also needs to be made to East Gosford & Gosford Lions Clubs for their support sending volunteers to cook the masses of sausages and serve food to the students through the day. They have been with us ever year and we are so grateful to them for their ongoing support and it is a wonderful opportunity for our students to practice their social skills with members of the community.

The day simply can not go ahead without the fantastic work of the staff at Henry Kendall High School and I would like to give my personal thanks to the Special Education Staff that work tirelessly to create a wonderful environment for the students to enjoy on the day and to Shelly McLoughlin for chasing so many associations to liaise about the running of the day. The PDHPE faculty are always supportive and give up their space for the day to run. Thank you all.

Mr Paul McNally

'Come and Try' Day Coordinator