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Inspirational and Motivational Mintridge Bronze Programme with Danielle Brown MBE and Khadijah Safari at Thrapston Primary School

Alex Wallace

“THERE IS NOTHING THAT I CANNOT DO!”

As the summer holidays approach, Team Mintridge were thrilled to be invited to Thrapston Primary School for an amazing Bronze Kickboxing and Archery Programme with Khadijah Safari and Danielle Brown MBE.

According to recent research from Sport England, their findings have suggested that there are currently seven million children aged five to 15 in England and just over half of these are not doing the recommended daily amount (60 minutes a day) of exercise. Therefore, in an aim to positively impact as many young people as possible, our two amazing Mintridge Ambassadors, got the students at Thrapston Primary School, moving during an extremely fun filled day of kickboxing and archery.

Both Danielle and Khadijah are fantastic role models to young people. During their whole school assembly, they both portrayed positive messages about the importance of having a strong growth mindset, which inspired the students at Thrapston to be open minded and find ways to solve and rework problems and challenges. Danielle and Khadijah went on to speak about the highs and lows of their sporting journeys and what they have learnt along the way. From this, the students at Thrapston were motivated by their determination and resilience to keep going, even when things got tough during their careers. At the end of this presentation, Danielle and Khadijah left a lasting impact on the students when they got them to shout out some positive messages after them, so they could be heard from all of the classrooms, which were;

“I CAN!”

and

“THERE IS NOTHING I CANNOT DO!”

It was great to hear the students shout this from their own classrooms and they then carried this positive ‘can do’ attitude with them through the exciting kickboxing and archery sessions throughout the day.

Many of the students at Thrapston have never tried Archery or Kickboxing before, so it was a great opportunity for them to have a go for the very first time. Khadijah led some extremely enthusiastic and active kickboxing sessions and all of the students took part and gave it their all. Throughout these sessions, Khadijah taught them the importance of always protecting your head with a move called ‘guard up’., which she then incorporated into a sequence of ‘guard up, jab cross and axe kick!’. The students at Thrapston were extremely loud when chanting this and supporting each other, which was great to see and hear. This introductory kickboxing session for the students at Thrapston was wonderful, with one of the students asking their teacher where the nearest kickboxing club was and another student saying;

“This is so much fun, I have never had this much fun before!”

Meanwhile, Paralympic gold medallist, Danielle Brown MBE also led some fantastic archery sessions with the students, focusing on the correct archery technique using a high elbow to improve your accuracy. The students watched and listened carefully, as Danielle demonstrated this and then they gave it a go themselves, with some of the students even hitting the bullseye on their very first shot! The students loved these archery sessions and created mini competitions between each other, which motivated them to keep trying and taught them to persevere even if they could not hit the target during their first few goes. This is a very important life lesson which Danielle believes helped her throughout her career, and echoed her favourite motto throughout the day with the children - “I CAN!”. Throughout this exciting day, Danielle’s elite advice was shared and her top tips were demonstrated as many of the students were jumping up and down with joy at how much they had improved since the start of the session. One student even said;

“Can we do this all day?”

In the afternoon, Team Mintridge visited the Reception and Year 1 students who had lots of questions to ask Danielle and Khadijah. For this session, Danielle even brought her Paralympic bow and arrow to show the students. Khadijah also did an introductory session to the young students, teaching them the importance of reaction times and reflexes. It was great to be able to inspire even the younger students at Thrapston with our two Ambassadors, and ensure that they too aim to dream big when they are older.  

We had some great questions for both Danielle and Khadijah throughout the day and some of the best ones are below.

  • What is your favourite sport?

  • How many medals have you won?

  • What was your hardest competition to go to?

  • How far do you shoot your arrow?

  • If you could do any other sport what would it be?

  • Have you ever injured yourself?

  • Who inspired you to start kickboxing?

We had a fantastic day at Thrapston Primary School and it was so great to be able to inspire so many students across so many different year groups. After the last year, being active is paramount to maintain a positive mental and physical wellbeing, so we are very grateful that we were invited to Thrapston with two of our incredible, inspirational Ambassadors. Thank you to the staff for helping to support this Programme, we hope to visit you again soon!

If you would like to know about local kickboxing and archery classes near you for your students/children to get involved with, please see the links below;

Archery

  • Archers of Raunds Manor School Sports College, Mountbatten Way, Raunds, Wellingborough NN9 6PA

  • Northampton Archery Club Moulton, Northampton NN3 7SX

  • Corby Archers Rockingham Rd, Corby NN17 2AE

Kickboxing

If you are interested in a virtual or physical Programme with any of our other inspirational Ambassadors, then please get in touch via the Mintridge website at www.mintridgefoundation.org.uk or with Katie at katie@mintridge.org.uk.

The Mintridge Foundation is a registered charity dedicated to enhancing life skills in young people through sport. We provide a support network for young people by harnessing the power of positive sporting role models. The Mintridge Foundation assists young people of all ages, abilities, and physical capabilities to develop confidence and resilience, and creates awareness of the importance of mental and physical wellbeing through sport.

Our team of Ambassadors - Olympians, Paralympians and other professional sports stars from over 20 sports, both team and individual - work with young people in schools, clubs and academies across the UK. Starting with visits including assemblies, coaching clinics and classroom sessions tailored to each organisation’s requirements, our ambassadors can then provide one- on- one remote mentoring in a safeguarded environment, delivered via technology such as FitSwarm and Playwaze to build a lasting legacy for individuals.

The Mintridge Foundation’s successes demonstrate the incredible power of sport; from a mentee’s selection to represent Great Britain in their chosen field to enabling disabled children to find confidence and happiness just through participation. Understanding life after sport, we also support our Ambassadors in their transition from active sport to the next stage of their careers.

To find out more about the Mintridge Foundation, please contact Alex Wallace. 

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