KEEN footballers at The Abbey School were excited to receive a new football kit this week courtesy of the Children with Special Needs Foundation (CWSNF).

The Abbey is a special school for students aged 11 to 16 with learning and additional needs and football is a very popular part of the curriculum, with additional lunchtime and after-school clubs.

Headteacher Nathan Aspinall said: “We use sport and other enriching areas of the curriculum to really boost confidence, self-esteem, resilience and determination. 

“We have a very active school football team with separate teams for years seven, eight and nine, and 10 and 11. This enables a wide range of students, male and female, to benefit from representing the school.

“It is great seeing the students in the new kit, so generously provided by CWSNF, and you could sense the pride in the students.

“We all still remember that feeling of representing the school; leaving class slightly early, getting changed, having lunch in your kit and feeling ’ten foot taller’ as you know you have been picked for the school team and all the eyes of the school are on you.”

The Abbey’s footballers won the CWSNF Ian Wooldridge memorial replica FA Cup in 2016, and so are looking forward to hosting that tournament in the new kit and defending their crown next year.

Mr Aspinall continued: “We wish to thank the charity again for their generous donation and for all the support that they provide us at The Abbey School.

“They really enable us to provide a wider range of enriching life experiences for our students. Such experiences help our students grow and mature as young adults, and help to provide a rich choice of leisure interests that our students then participate in outside of school and throughout their adult lives.”