The Barn in The Community
Easter Holiday HAF Boxing & Food Workshop
Easter 2022 provided us with an opportunity to run a fantastic workshop for young people who benefit from the Free School Meals Scheme. Via the Marcus Rashford Campaign to ensure all children are looked after and fed properly during School Holidays, Oxfordshire County Council funded an activity week with a couple of aims.
One is to educate children from low income families on the importance of solid nutrition as well as meal planning and budgeting.
The second focus is on closing the experience gap between children from more and less privileged families. Some children benefit from opportunities like holidays and sports camps which other parents simply cannot afford to pay for.
Easter Holiday HAF Boxing & Food Workshop
Blake's Kitchen went above and beyond when providing the food for the children - not only producing nutritious, interesting and delicious food but providing the meals for the children who qualify for FSM free of charge. Blake's requested that we use the food budget in other ways for those children - we have provided them with hand wraps and memberships at The Barn.
Easter Holiday HAF Boxing & Food Workshop
We worked on many aspects of boxing including technical boxing drills, footwork & fitness sessions. We included opportunities to learn to Coach Boxers during a sparring session & how to score the spar. The children applied the boxing knowledge they had learnt through the week to coach Tom & his opponent through sparring & decide on a winner.
Female Self Defence Workshop
Harrie worked closely with Lee Chapman from Combined Self Defence to run two workshops for local women. The group learnt and practiced four simple breakaway techniques which improved confidence for all participants.
We are very grateful to the sponsors of the workshops - Damian Tracey and Adam Blizzard. The sponsorships enabled each local woman to attend free of charge.
Special Educational Needs
We work closely with schools who look after children with special educational needs. This often involves 1:1 work with one of our coaches and the young person. Teachers accompany the young boxers and the session is a great learning opportunity, release of energy and social situation practice.
Kids Classes
We run classes for children and juniors and offer memberships to reduce the cost per session.
Mentor Opportunities
Tom works on a 1:1 basis with young people in the local community. Some young people find themselves on a slippery slope where bad behaviour or incidents seem to be becoming a pattern and way of life.
We believe that our boxing club provides a safe place for young people to build on their confidence, learn respect for themselves and other people and become successful members of society.
If you know any young person that would benefit from this program, please reach out. If you are in the position to be able to sponsor this program, we need your help in order to provide daily sessions for local youths. We work with local schools, charities and Thames Valley Police in order to ensure this is successful.
Helping Local Sports Teams
We are lucky to have a facility with lots of space and equipment. The gym is available for private hire to carry out your own circuit/boxing session or with a coach to run a class for your team. This is great for fitness, especially in pre season or as an addition to your usual training program. The boxing fitness sessions serve well as team building exercises and as an exciting way to make a change to your training schedule.
Local Schools
We do boxing sessions both in schools and @ The Barn. Chilworth House Upper School regularly enjoy their own boxing session followed by a circuit as a treat for good behaviour. We also work closely with Sandwell Learning Centre. We are flexible with our approach so get in contact for more details!
