Anabel, 8
Anabel moved to a new primary school and was extremely shy, reserved and worried she wouldn’t make any friends. Shortly after moving her class took part in a SportInspired festival. It was this experience that helped Anabel to make friends and build her confidence.  

 Anabel loved the festival so much she joined several sports clubs including hockey, dodgeball and volleyball afterwards. Through this experience her confidence and self-esteem pushed her out of her comfort zone enough to run for school counsellor. On top of this she has joined the school choir and was voted Spanish Champion. Her last achievement is to be part of the school rock band.   

Ayaan, 8

Ayaan lives in one of the most deprived areas of Barking & Dagenham. Ayaan is 8 years old and has impaired hearing. Before we met Ayaan he suffered from extreme anxiety, a fear of new situations and had developed a stutter which made him feel cut off from the world. Taking part in a SportInspired programme was a game changer for Ayaan. The programme gave him the chance to participate in and grow to love sports he never thought he would try. Football was the sport that really struck Ayaan. He had never had the confidence to participate before but SportInspired gave him the chance and now there’s no turning back! Ayaan now regularly paticipates in clubs set up by SportInspired and his teachers say his confidence, speech and language skills have dramatically improved as a result. 

We asked him what the best part of playing football is for him, he said ‘I like learning new skills and I like making new friends at the club.’ 

Mariah, 13

Mariah grew up in one of the country’s most deprived areas in Southwark. Here, unemployment is extremely high, and many young people don’t see university as a possibility. Mariah is 13 and has always been shy. Before we met her, she thought she’d be shy her whole life and didn’t think she was good enough to go to university. Taking part in the SportInspired Young Leader programme changed this. Mariah developed key communication skills and learnt that she didn’t need to be shy and worry about what other people think or do. 

She had the opportunity to visit Oxford University where she had a tour of the campus and listened to talks on university life, courses and future careers by students from the university. Seeing the other schools on the university visit and hearing stories from students and lecturers on campus she now believes she can attend university.  

Mariah is now more outgoing in class, putting up her hand to offer opinions and discussing subjects with classmates. We asked her how she feels now: “I’m more confident about taking my GCSE’s, I think even if you don’t do your best you can still do better in the future!” 

Dylan, 14

Dylan was very misbehaved, did not concentrate on academic subjects and on the edge of exclusion in year 10. His PE teacher selected him to be a Young Leader at a SportInspired festival and thought that the skills training and level of responsibility would be beneficial for Dylan. He took part in the training sessions and festival for local SEN children and was fantastic. Not only was he a great Young Leader, his behaviour also improved and he began to focus in school, resulting in him leaving year 11 with more GCSE’s than he was predicted.  

 After leaving school, Dylan secured a full-time teaching placement as a Primary PE Assistant in a local school in Woolwich and also gained his NVQ Level 3 Diploma in Sport. After his first year in the job, he was employed by another one of the trust schools as their lead for Health and Well-being and is working towards applying for university this September 

 Dylan said “During my time at St Pauls, I was never sure what I wanted to do… my visions are now to go on to University to study my teaching and sports science degree”,  I would never thought this would have been possible”