When we give the kids the opportunity to voice what they really think about being part of the Mighty Marvels junior schools programme, the letters come thick and fast.
And when we publish excerpts of what they’re saying in our updates, the feedback comes equally thick and fast from our partners!!
So by popular demand, after a first helping in last month’s issue, we thought we’d serve up a Part 2! And once again, Sporting Marvels is abbreviated to SM to save on space -
Hang around the leaders and it’ll not be long before you get the impression that 2011 is already thought of as the best year yet in the history of Sporting Marvels!
And nowhere is this more evident than in the project’s out-of-school special events programme.
Team Leader, Lawrie, told us, “We’re a ministry that strives to be the best we can be and with the heart, enthusiasm and passion of our amazing team, it’s a fact that 2011 has seen more kids attend our events than the previous two years combined!!”
Adventure Day” has been a big part of Sporting Marvels for years now, and it keeps getting better and better!
Such was the demand to be at the October Adventure Days that one school that couldn’t provide a bus, had the kids transported to the venue in convoy, parents’ cars!
In March 2004, Phil had Stephen Parry, then the Head Teacher at Tonypandy, make a call to Peter Jenkins, his counterpart at Ferndale Community School.
“Tonypandy had been with us for six months”, Phil said, “So I asked the Head to put in a good word for us with Peter. At the subsequent meeting, I invited Ferndale to be part of Sporting Marvels and told him that I thought we’d identified a South African girl, Danielle le Roux, who could help launch our work at Ferndale. Peter Jenkins nearly bit my hand off, so Steve Parry had obviously done a great sell job for us!”
When Phil needed a professional photographer to “shoot” the Marvels in their new, shiny KooGa kit, there was only one name in the frame.....John Newman.
“It’s true to say that John and I go back a very long way! “ Phil said. “Through rugby, I’ve worked with many professional photographers and John’s the top of the tree. His ‘service’ is second to none: combining very high standards with decades of experience, and a level of customer care that’s always ready to go an extra mile or two!”
For a special group of 11 year-olds, the leap to the Comprehensive School has been something of a sad affair.
YGG Bodringallt is a junior school educated through the medium of Welsh. It’s a great school with great kids and right up there with the very best Mighty Marvels schools. But when the kids go off to Comp - to Ysgol Gyfun y Cymer, they are forced to wave goodbye to Sporting Marvels: because we don’t have a worker in Cymer! .......yet!!
