7 minute read
SCHOOL NEWS
ActiveKids
Wothorpe sports centre opens at SES
THE WOTHORPE SPORTS Centre on Kettering Road in Stamford was officially opened at the Stamford Endowed Schools in December last year.
The Kettering Road site has long been a sports facility but had just the one hockey pitch. This has now been expanded to create a contemporary facility with two new Astroturf pitches, four changing rooms and three studio suites for dance, Pilates, spin classes and general fitness.
Will Phelan, Principal of Stamford Endowed Schools, comments: ‘Wothorpe is a facility that complements the other sports’ provision that we already have across the Stamford Schools’ estate. We strive to grow and expand our offering for the benefit of our existing and future students and the provision now at Wothorpe allows us to do this.’
The Wothorpe Sports Centre offers a high specification provision for the students and is also open for use by local sports’ clubs already affiliated with the school. The project cost just over £6 million and was funded by Stamford Endowed Schools along with donations made by generous alumni and the wider Stamford community.
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Pre-PreP Stay and Play SeSSionS 20th January and 3rd February Pre-PreP oPen Morning Friday 24th February oPen Morning Saturday 4th March
Register your interest: admissions@withamhall.com | 01778590222
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15/11/2022 12:52
Well done Witham
THE WITHAM HALL Summer Ball charity auction raised an astounding £20,500 for two charities this year, Hearts & Minds and Don’t Lose Hope.
Don’t Lose Hope is a local mental health charity that offers professional counselling services for anyone from the age of four upwards. This is a free service for families and individuals receiving certain state benefits and is affordable to all others. Don’t Lose Hope relies on fundraising to ensure they can maintain this service, raising funds through their café and gift shop in Bourne, and also through donations.
Representatives from the school’s parents’ association, the Friends of Witham, visited the Don’t Lose Hope café to present Nicola Brister, founder and young person’s counsellor, with £10,250. This donation will be used to help fund five new counselling rooms which are due to open in 2023.
Jono’s charity challenge
AN OAKHAM SCHOOL pupil has raised more than £6,600 for a mental health charity by running 25 half marathons in 25 days during the lead up to Christmas.
Jonathan, (Year 13) unfortunately became injured during the eighth day of the challenge, but was overwhelmed by the support of his friends, family and teachers who all pitched in to help him reach the required distance.
This included a sports lesson at Oakham where hundreds of pupils and staff ran laps of a pitch, racking up more than 637km in one afternoon. Even Jono’s parents and friends in other countries went out and did their own runs to support him.
Jono also hosted podcasts throughout the challenge (and plans to continue them) which focused on mental health and featured special guests including professional boxer Stanley Stannard, who also ran with him, and Alicia Kearns MP.
‘Throughout the challenge, there has been a strong correlation between social media and mental health issues. As a result, I am going to help raise the issue of mental health being affected by social media,’ says Jono.
The challenge was to raise money for Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), a charity close to his heart. ‘I chose CALM because I know a lot of people, including myself, struggled with their mental health during lockdowns and it’s something I wanted to raise awareness of and money for.’
Donations are still being accepted so to support Jonathan’s fundraising efforts, visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ jonathan-hedley2.
Entrance exam registration
THERE’S STILL TIME to register to sit the Year 7 entrance exams for The Peterborough School for entry in September 2023. Contact Admissions@tpsch.co.uk or phone 01733 343357.
Examinations take place on Saturday 28 January. Reception and Sixth Form places are also available.
www.thepeterboroughschool.co.uk/joiningus
ActiveBody
EDITED BY KATE MAXIM
A slippery slope
Sliding on ice is great fun as a child, not so much as an adult. Physiotherapist Sarah Babbs advises how to improve our balance
THERE WAS A joke on social media this week about how sliding on ice as a child is fun, a great game and the more slippery the better. As an adult it’s not fun at all but can be terrifying and lead to hospital and broken bones. And sadly with the very cold spell and heavy frost we have had this has happened to people.
In clinic we see people with broken wrists, hips and other injuries but not all because of slippery pavements. For some it will be completely unrelated to the weather, from tripping while running through forests, falls from bikes, over potholes or tricky tracks, skiing injuries and, for others, a simple fall in the garden. But ice doesn’t help! As we age the body’s ability to cope with an impending fall tends to lessen. So what might have been a simple fall could now be more life changing and indeed, in the case of older people breaking their hips, life limiting.
Balance is the ability to maintain the body’s centre of mass over its base of support and there are many reasons why this may be poor.
Balance is achieved and maintained by a complex set of systems in the body. These include sensory input from vision (sight), proprioception (the awareness of the body in space with feedback from touch, joints, muscles and other soft tissues), and the vestibular system through the ears which assesses whether we are still or moving, upright or leaning. That sensory input is managed by the messages received in the brain and then acted upon to instruct the body to maintain the good positions and correct any ‘off balance’ positions. Sometimes these factors are impacted by disease such as inflammation in the inner ear called labyrinthitis, or a stroke, medication and of course, the ageing process. For some too there may be psychological disturbances for whom the feeling of loss of control of balance is very restricting.
Try standing on one leg and then try again with eyes closed. For many, removing vision makes it a very different test and completely changes the challenge. But this is similar to running in the dark or even getting up in the night to nip to the loo down a dark corridor. Other sensory problems may be peripheral neuropathy where one is not able to feel the floor under the feet, so angled, softer or cobbled type surfaces can be more difficult.
Proprioception can be altered by something as simple as a stiff neck. Sensors in the ear canals and in the neck itself are unable to fully respond if we have reduced movement. Some who have injured shoulders may find they feel off kilter when running or walking as the usual shoulder swing will be diminished and not feeding back well.
Attempting to lessen our risk is important and of course keeping active, strong and well rested is always the key. Having good bone density is also vital so that if you fall there is less damage done. Good diet and supplemental vitamin D in particular are important and doing loaded exercise such as skipping and weight work helps to keep up good bone production.
Practicing balance exercises will help lessen our risk of falling. For someone who is dizzy this may mean just sitting and looking from side to side and up and down to improve the visual input. This can be progressed to adding head movements which factors in the vestibular or ear and neck feedback. Then try standing, still doing these movements. We then add in stepping forward, back and sideways, walking along a line (rather like the old police test for drink driving) then hopping, all with eyes open and then closed. Imagine a dancer learning pirouettes. They fix their eyes on a specific point for as long as possible to maintain their balance but also need to be able to work with their focus changing. So progressive work in different directions is the key.
And as for preventing those falls at night, a simple night light in the corridor might make all the difference.
