A group of pupils on the Achieve programme are going on an exclusive trip to Wimbledon after winning a tennis tournament in Swansea.

The Pontarddulais School team beat off competition from Cefn Season and Dylan Thomas schools in the tournament, which was organised by the Tennis Foundation and Swansea Tennis Centre. Swansea Tennis Centre manager Owain Rees, said,

After the success of a pilot event in Wrexham, we were delighted to join forces with The Prince’s Trust Cymru to run the first course of its kind in South Wales.

The teams had been practicing for the tournament for several weeks. Beforehand, many of the group weren’t interested in PE lessons because they didn’t like traditional school sports like rugby and netball. The opportunity to play tennis was really well received, and kept the pupils engaged throughout. Laura Wilcox, Teacher, Pontarddulais School, said,

This is part of The Prince’s Trust Achieve programme - which is fantastic. It gets pupils with different learning needs working together, and offers them a qualification if they were following a different path in school. The fact that they get to go to Wimbledon is just fantastic!

14 year old Jamie Thomas was part of the winning team from Pontardulais School. He says,

I’m not really in to sport but have liked playing tennis with the rest of my class. It’s amazing to have won and now we get to go to Wimbledon which I have only ever seen on the TV.

Our Achieve programme provides flexible provision for pupils experiencing challenges in school to help them excel in education and prepare for future employment.

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