Hartpury students are selected as Games Makers for the Paralympic Games

A group of Hartpury students and two lecturers have been selected as Games Makers for the Athletics competition at the Paralympic Games in August.
 
Hartpury’s first year sport students were invited to enter a pre-assessment process at College for the chance to become one of only 10 students to be involved in the team.  Josh Rees, Dan Cater, Charlie Powell, Alice Luce, Rosie Breakwell, Matthew Nash, Juniper Driscoll, Matthew Cairns, Tom Pittaway and Emily Wilton were all successful after impressing with their applications.
 
The group travelled to London in December for an assessment day and were up against other colleges and schools from all over the UK, who were hoping to be selected as volunteers.  The students had to take part in a series of team building activities throughout the day – this included building the Olympic stadium using just newspaper and sellotape and designing an advert for a sport which was then presented live to approx 120 people. The best teams were then selected based on criteria such as how well they worked together, leadership skills and communication.
 
Precise roles will be allocated closer to time, and the team will be involved in further training such as a Special Educational Needs (SEN) Athletics test event at Olympic Stadium in May and a training session with a disabled elite athlete at the National Star College.
 
Dan Robinson, Head of Department for Sport, and one of the lecturers accompanying the students to the Paralympics, said: “We are incredibly proud of the students achievements. They worked together brilliantly considering some of them had only met each other a few days before the assessment day! It was a hard and very long day but worth it to be involved in such a momentous event!
 
Hartpury’s Equine and Academy Administrator Rachel Moss has also been offered a Games Maker role for the Olympics in July. She will take up a role either in Greenwich Park or at the Athletes Village as a Sport Information Team Member for Equestrian sport.