Blairgowrie Ski Trip – Glenshee

Pupils from Perth and Kinross schools were offered skiing delivered by Disability Snowsport Scotland (DSS), Glenshee who are all volunteer instructors. This project was made possible by funding secured by Live Active Leisure (LAL) from the Short Breaks Fund (supported by the Scottish Government and distributed by Shared Care Scotland).

Caroline Lawrie, Active Schools Coordinator for the Blairgowrie High School Cluster had identified through consultation with pupils and parents that many young people had never experienced skiing or considered it something they could do. The funding was used to give eight pupils who hav enever had the opportunity to ski, the opportunity to experience a new sport.  All pupils were given 1:1 instruction which was a valuable experience for their first time on snow.

All families were encouraged to attend the sessions in the hope that this would encourage parents to take their child up the slopes. All pupils have benefited from this experience not only from skiing but also getting to the top of the mountain.

Since this project has finished the positive feedback from parents has been amazing.

“My son sometimes struggles with sports activities and has low confidence to the point that he nearly backed out however, he decided to go for it and everyone was so encouraging and positive, putting him at ease and engaging with him.”

“At the beginning of this adventure we were a little afraid of how Wiktoria would get to the top and how she would manage. It was amazing for us how they put Wiktoria with this monoski on the chairlift and everything went very well. The instructors did everything very cleverly and you could see that they have a lot of experience in what they do. Wiktoria had a very good time and she would like to repeat it. For the next week she was still talking about it.  We would like to see her to do this again.”

Wiktoria’s feelings- one of the pupils: “I really enjoyed skiing the last Saturday. I was a little scared at first because I never skied before. As soon as I got geared up and in the mono ski I know that it was going to be a lot of fun. I loved every moment of my lessons.  I got to experience the chair lift and ski down the hill at high speed that I have never experience.  I got to practice same simple turns. I was very happy because I was going very fast. I had a lot falls but even when I felt I was very happy. I hope to come back soon.”

Gill McShea from LAL said: “This project illustrates how working in partnership we can come up with new ways to support young people improve their confidence; their physical and mental health; and achieve their potential through sport.  The backing of the Short Breaks fund has made this pilot possible and allows us to now explore way to create more opportunities for pupils to access snow and other outdoor sports.”

Skiing 2018 Pupils attended:

Next: heading to Snow Factory centre on 30 May…