Main pic: TY students from Loreto Secondary School, St Eunan’s College and Coláiste Ailigh with Letterkenny Tennis Club Head Coach, Gerry Clarke, and Donegal Sports Partnership’s Sports Inclusion Disability Officer, Therése Laverty.
TY students from three Letterkenny schools have linked up with the local tennis club to assist and help pupils from St. Bernadette’s Special School to access the game.
Letterkenny Tennis Club has described the initiative as a hugely beneficial and rewarding experience for everyone involved.
The programme involves TY students from Loreto Secondary School, St Eunan’s College and Coláiste Ailigh.
Letterkenny Tennis Club’s head coach, Gerry Clarke, explained that students attending St Bernadette’s are all different, and all have different needs.
“The TY students have never been involved in anything like this before,” he explained.
“You might get one in 40 who has worked with a person with a disability, so it’s a huge learning experience for them. They have to learn how to put the child they are working with at the front of everything they’re looking at for the two hours that they’re here.”
The TY students’ lives, as teenagers, are always about themselves, Mr Clarke added, so they work out what it is that they can do with the St Bernadette’s students and understand their physical abilities and intellectual abilities.
“It’s great and they really benefit from it. We do this for two six-week periods during the year, with 60 to 70 TY students involved,” he said.
One St Bernadette’s pupil having a ball on the court!
Explaining the background to the initiative, the head coach continued: “I got a call from St. Bernadette’s seven years ago to come up and try and do something, but it couldn’t work there. But there was something in my head and I didn’t want to give it up. So, we reviewed it after three weeks and I explained to them that it wasn’t going to work. I also noticed that the school had three mini-buses and suggested to them that I might be able to do something at the club and get some volunteers in to help.”
Mr Clarke then had a ‘lightbulb moment.’
“Then I thought about the kids I had – I had about 100 kids a week coming to the club. I asked them if they’d be interested in working with the TYs. Then I went to the schools, and they all bought into it pretty much straight away. All the schools are pretty much within walking distance which is key to it.”
Stating that all involved benefit from the programme, Gerry went on: “The TYs definitely get so much from it. After 12 weeks they have much more of an appreciation and understanding of things. I get great joy in putting all this together. Every year it’s a different group. Each student gets a certificate for working with people with disabilities. It’s just a great programme and it’s a joyous programme.
“The St. Bernadette’s kids get close to the TYs. They look for them every week and they have great fun and a lot of them are just keen to have someone to chat to. It’s the only programme I’m aware of that the three schools come together and work together. The schools are also happy with it, so I think it’s a really good community programme.”
As head coach at Letterkenny Tennis Club, Gerry is assisted by five junior coaches.
“We have around 120 kids coming through the place every week. My job really isn’t to make the next Wimbledon champion. That’s not success. I regard success as having kids who are playing tennis at 25, 26, or 30 and 35, and who still have a love and a passion for the game. That’s the key to it because it’s a minority sport.”
The school programme is well established in the calendars of the three schools in Letterkenny. However, Mr Clarke believes this model can be replicated in other towns provided the schools are within distance and the club isn’t too far away.
Donegal Sports Partnership’s Sports Inclusion Disability Officer, Therése Laverty, who helps support the programme, said: “The programme is very unique and provides learning for the students attending from St. Bernadette’s in addition to the transition year students from local secondary schools. Special Needs Assistants from St Bernadette’s are also on hand to provide learning and support to the young people.”
The principal of St. Bernadette’s Special School, John Haran, was also full of praise for Gerry Clarke.
“Gerry has always been very good to us and this programme is a brilliant collaboration. It’s great for our children to be integrated with children from the mainstream secondary schools, and it’s a great experience for the TY students to interact with our students,” he said.
For more information on coaching sessions and summer camps at Letterkenny Tennis Club, contact Gerry at 086-3809398.
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