The Hall School Blenheim Triathlon Team 2024

Team fundraiser • 5 members • Support SEND Kids Limited

Story

2024 celebrates 10 years of The Hall School Triathlon Team and the farewell ride of the Tour de Godwin. This is the grand finale to Chris and Sue Godwin's time at The Hall School. Please give generously to support this year’s important cause and help SEND children access the education they need to thrive.

Who we are

The triathlon team, an inclusive group of mums, dads, teachers, and friends of the Hall School, will complete a challenging Sprint Triathlon at Blenheim Palace on Sunday 2 June. Our friendly team have been juggling work and family life, training hard to get ourselves ready for action!

On the same morning, a group of intrepid cyclists will undertake the 115km from London to Oxfordshire, fondly named the Tour de Godwin (https://www.justgiving.com/page/tour-de-godwin-2024) to arrive at Blenheim Palace in time to cheer on the triathletes.

The Hall Triathlon is a huge personal challenge for each member of the team.

Many of our triathletes battle the winter months to build up strength and stamina to swim 750 in open water, conquer the London roads to prepare for the 21km cycle leg and finally drag themselves from the couch to train for the 5km run.

Support SEND Kids

This year we are raising money for the Support SEND Kids charity. (SEND defines a wide range of Special Educational Needs or Disabilities). These can be physical challenges but over 70% are ‘invisible’. This includes neurodiverse children, those with ADHD, Autism, dyslexia and other, often combined, learning difficulties.

We believe passionately in the right of every child to get a good education. This right is enshrined in law, yet, there are 1 million school age children with SEND who face desperate and often invisible struggles to access learning, navigate friendships, or just survive the school day. In too many cases, parents need to negotiate their way through a complicated legal system to ensure their child receives the necessary educational support. Support SEND Kids works hard so SEND children don’t get left behind, or left out of, education.

Imagine if all children facing the race to literacy and numeracy, stand in a row at the start of a running track, those with SEND face a long line of invisible hurdles which they must jump before they reach the finish line. The hurdles leave them exhausted, often demoralised with so many more ahead, and worst of all, most people can’t see them and can assume the child is lazy, naughty or not worth helping.

From my community of parents, of children with disabilities, I have heard some truly heart-breaking stories: a two year old child being excluded from nursery because he has epilepsy and his seizures are “stressing out” the staff; another family being refused a place at more than five nurseries once those establishments learned their child was disabled; a child with sensory processing disorder who was punished by teachers ... and so many other struggles. SEND children have a legal right to education. Extra support empowers them to get the best out of their schooling, leading to fulfilled adult lives.

How heart-breaking if this is your child, imagine the stress and anxiety of not knowing where to turn and what to do. The stories of families whose children have SEND are desperately moving, because, despite the laws that are in place to protect these most vulnerable children and protect their right to education, the system is hard to access, chaotic and unnecessarily adversarial. For many parents, the barriers can feel insurmountable: confidence in navigating the system, confusion about their rights, cost of advice. Without the right support children can struggle to survive in school. And down the line, the consequences of not getting the most out of education is the risk of an adult always reliant on social services, or worse, over 30% of people in prison have a known neurodiverse diagnosis, with the total suspected to be far higher.

Every donation you make will have a big difference to helping SEND children gain the educational provision they need and reach their full potential .

The challenge of assisting children, young people and adults with the often oppressive disability and other related challenges they face is huge and we are proud to be supporting the Support SEND Kids efforts to bring greater transparency and availability of clear and accurate answers to the SEND community of parents, practitioners and educators. As parents of SEND children ourselves, we know how important this is.

How you and Support SEND Kids can help

£20-40k raised: We will reach an estimated additional 10,000+ families. Delivering on the urgent need for essential legal information in more accessible forms, such as step-by-step and audio guides. Giving more parents the confidence to navigate the process, making education accessible to more children.

£20-40k: We will reach an estimated additional 1,000+ lawyers. Online training to up-skill SEND lawyers to deliver much more pro bono support for a greater number of parents. We estimate this will reach an additional 10,000+ families.

£80-100k raised: SEND conference hosted by the charity. This would have a significant, sustainable and long term impact on the SEND legal landscape and accelerate much needed systemic change. Delivering fast-track training and information for lawyers, schools, and parents. Outcome, a possible 1000+ in person (with an additional 5000+ online) ready to deliver change for the SEND children in their care. Results for SEND children would be an accelerated improvement on delivering to their needs. Reach estimated an additional 20,000+ children.

After nearly 30 interviews with parents of SEND kids, it is clear that the fight to get their child the right provision adds huge mental load to already exhausted parents. But when the system works and the right education is in place, SEND children can amaze everyone. Each child is unique and faces a personal set of challenges but sometimes only small adjustments can enable them to get the most out of their education. We believe all children have the right to be the best version of themselves.