Recently a group of students from Corby Technical School took part in a series of RAIR (Raising Aspirations and Increasing Resilience) workshops led by the inspirational Paralympic silver medallist Alistair Patrick-Heselton.

Alistair was a highly rated young footballer when he was involved in a life defining car crash in 2006. The terrible injuries he suffered left him in a coma for several months. He was told he may never walk again and thought his football days were over. Four years later he was contacted by The FA and given details of CP football for Cerebral Palsy or brain injury sufferers.

Since then Alistair has played in the CPISRA World Championships for England (scoring on his debut) and in the Paralympics GB team at London 2012. He has also turned his hand to public speaking and mentoring.

The RAIR workshops aim to develop a culture of aspiration where young people have resilience to overcome challenges. So far in the session Alistair has led, students have been set a variety of skill based challenges that seemed impossible to complete and required the students to work together as a team.

The students will now take part in three further workshops with Alistair before they become RAIR champions. They will continue to develop a culture of aspiration and resilience by teaching their fellow peers the skills they have learnt.

The workshop is part of the PE2020 Active Healthy Minds programme organised by the Youth Sport Trust in partnership with Northamptonshire County Council and Northamptonshire Sport. The programme aims to improve the physical, social and emotional wellbeing of young people aged 11-18 years across Northamptonshire.

Student Katie said ‘We didn’t really know each other at the start because we were all from different year groups. The activities really made us stop and think. We had to become more confident and speak to one another to be able to complete the challenges.’

Student Bayley said ‘It has been really good fun. All the activities required us to trust one another and we learnt a lot about responsibility and leadership as well as working as a team.’