Over the Past Semester, Year 9 Students working in the Health and Physical Education (HPE) curriculum area have been participating in a Middle Years Program (MYP) Community Project in partnership with Special Olympics Australia.
The community project provided an important opportunity for students to collaborate and pursue service learning and over two terms where students participated in a sustained project where they developed their coaching skills and ability to work with young athletes with a disability.

Over the course of Term One, students upskilled with the Special Olympics Australia ‘Coaching a Young Athlete’ Qualification, that, along with equipment and resources generously provided free to students from Special Olympics Australia allowed students to grow in their confidence and ability in becoming a coach.

The collaboration with the Calamvale Special School (CSS) has been a point of pride within our college and something that has a tradition within the HPE dept over several years. This year with approx. 250 Year 9 CCC Students and over 50 CSS Students along with the Support and Teaching Staff involved the project showed the strength of a community when it comes together to engage.

Our Year 9 students engaged in demonstrating the skills, attitudes and knowledge required to complete a project over an extended period of time. The community project of our students provided opportunity to effectively communicate in a variety of situations as students worked in coaching teams. By the end of the journey students began to appreciate the process of learning and took pride in their accomplishments and importantly for a year 9 student, demonstrate responsible action through, or as a result of their learning.
We wish to thank the support of the team at Special Olympics Australia and the positive engagement of the students and staff from the CSS, whom we always enjoy collaborating with in cultivating the understanding and empathy of our students at CCC.

Some student quotes from the experience…

“Throughout this unit, I have learnt how to adjust certain activities to allow participation for students struggling with disabilities and I also gained confidence in guiding and instructing the students.” (Ava Drury, Year 9HPE Student)
“Inclusion is important as it can build up a person’s social, communication and teamwork skills. As well as allowing the student to feel more comfortable with people around and be able to work with each other.” (Darrin Ek, Year 9HPE Student)
“From this coaching experience I gained opportunities to new knowledge, meet new people, and educate them. This taught me to not underestimate anyone, due to who they are and what disabilities they have. Being honest, I, personally have underestimated people with disabilities. After this coaching lesson I learned that many people, regardless of the disability, are actually capable of many things… In the future if I ever get an opportunity to work with disabled people, I will not hesitate. “ (Afrah Fatima, Year 9 HPE Student)