The Westwood Academy are hosting an inspirational workshop with Team World Champion Jaydon Paddock. Can you help us make it happen?
The School
The Westwood Academy aim to provide every child with the opportunity to feed their passion for learning, to provide opportunities in and out of the classroom that will help them discover their place in the world. The Academies goal is exceptional academic performance whatever the child’s ability.
Westwood have a very dedicated, experienced and talented teaching staff they are more than ably supported by an excellent team of support staff who are fully involved in every child’s learning journey. The work teachers do is regularly shared locally and nationally with other schools seeking support. Outside of the classroom there are an enormous number of opportunities to engage in, for example, sports clubs, the Duke of Edinburgh scheme and science, maths and technology societies. The Westwood Academy also run a host of curriculum related and other trips to Europe and within the UK so that they give children an opportunity to expand their minds with new experiences. All of these elements result in the children leaving school with the knowledge, experience and skills that are personal to them in preparing them for the next stage of their working life or study.
The Westwood Academy expectations of all children’s behaviour is high; manners, respect for others and the school’s rules, exceptional attendance and a strong work ethic are most important. In return, they offer a nurturing and intensely supportive environment in which to learn and grow socially. The Academies Head Boy and Girl and the student leadership team are heavily engaged in how they run the school and how they support all of the children here and this will continue to grow in importance year on year. As a consequence The Westwood Academy have a wonderfully inclusive and cohesive ethos and atmosphere which would be hard to replicate.
Thanks to The Westwood Academies' location they have powerful working relationships with the University of Warwick that benefit all of the children. Many parents will also be aware that the decision to form a Multi Academy trust with the outstanding Kenilworth School as lead was agreed by the DfE in July 2018 and this partnership was formally entered into from January 2019 and they have been working in close partnership with Kenilworth since then and these links are going from strength to strength.
Who's coming?
HOW I STARTED
My mum tells the story of me forever climbing and hanging on to everything I could and everything I shouldn’t! So, at the age of 2 & 1/2 years old my journey as an Artistic Gymnast began. At the age of 5, I was selected into my first development squad & began to regularly train 15-19 hrs per week. School, travelling & training became my life. But at the age of 7, after moving to a new club, my little gymnastics world crumbled when I was released from the artistic squad being told that my strength development was slower than other gymnasts my age & that I ‘would never become the gymnast that the coach & my parents wanted me to be. My parents obviously didn’t share the truth with me as they knew the upset it had already caused me. After much discussion, it was advised to move across to Tumbling where I met my existing coach – Chris Porter. From that point, I have never looked back. I maintained a 15 hours per week training schedule around school with not much other time to do anything else however, I loved gymnastics so at that age, it was no sacrifice. I developed a real love for Tumbling & my coach really invested in me by ensuring I was constantly working on getting the basics right. I had great success in many competitions from the start but my first hurdle came when I had qualified to compete in my first British Championships at 9 years old. It was the biggest competition I had competed in so far & was at the NIA, Birmingham. I was so excited!! The preliminary stages of the competition went great but I allowed the nerves to get to me on finals day & I didn’t even make it to the end of the track after pulling out of one of my runs mid-way through & landing on my neck! This was to be my first lesson in failure.
MY GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT
My greatest achievement to date is definitely the 2019 World Championships where I and my 3 teammates have crowned team world champions and I also finished 5th in my first senior worlds individual final. As this was my first senior world championship I was very excited to take this step up to the senior competition from winning the 17-21 world age competition the previous year. We flew out to Tokyo, Japan where the 2019 world championships were held, which was an amazing travelling experience in itself, and had a great 4 days of training before the individual prelims in which we all competed to each try and secure both a spot in the individual final which only two per country can make a final at any time but also the team final as well. Prelims was a great success as I not only put down two great scores to help secure our spot in the team final in 1st place, but to my surprise, I also managed to bag myself one of the two individual final spots by qualifying in 6th place so as you can imagine I was extremely happy to have the opportunity to compete twice more. That same evening was the team final where out of the 4 man team only 3 compete with all 3 scores being totalled to give a final overall score. We had previously discussed who would be competing and what order we would compete in which ended up with me not only going up last out of the GB lads but due to the competition layout I would be the last person to compete out of the whole final so as you can imagine there was a lot of pressure. My two teammates put out two amazing passes which relieved a bit of the pressure but then it was my turn to put my hand up and follow the plan. My pass was very clean and scored very well which meant it was just enough to crown us with the Team world champion title which was amazing. However, and my teammate Elliot could not relax as two days later we had to both compete in the individual final. The day came and I planned to go all out for the final and put out two of the hardest passes I could do as I was confident I could execute them well and put up two big scores. As planned both passes went extremely well which was enough to secure my 5th place and I couldn't be any happier with my performance in my first Senior World Individual final. The whole competition was an unbelievable experience which I plan to improve upon in future competitions to come.
MY GREATEST CHALLENGE
Fortunately, 2017 was a quiet year for the competition which meant that I could really focus on getting back to who I was as a gymnast & as a competitor all while focusing on the up & coming Worlds Championships. I had been working so hard & on paper, this title was mine to lose. Pre-training out in Bulgaria was going well but then I dislocated my shoulder at the end of a training run. The pain was unreal but the physio was on hand to look after me & this wasn’t going to stop me from achieving one of my goals. With my family & teammates in the crowd, I stepped up to complete my first run in the preliminary rounds. It started well with a nice clean transition (double straight somersault in the middle of the routine), however, I had travelled too far in this move which meant that as I continued, I was fast running out of track to fit the rest of my moves in. As I took off for my end skill, I realised that I was taking off on the landing mat but due to the speed I was going it was too late to change the move. As a result, I crashed both on my face while jarring my injured shoulder. I was upset, annoyed & angry all at once & a little bit embarrassed as I pulled myself off the mat. My coach tried to say all the right things to bring my head back into the competition as I still had another run to compete but at that moment, it was hard. I took a few minutes to sit & try to refocus & made my mind up to go out & compete for the next run, which I did. My second run went near to perfect & I scored the highest in the competition but it wasn’t enough. For the first time ever, I didn't make finals. This moment was devastating for me & then to sit in the audience watching & supporting my teammates who had made finals, was heartbreaking. I was happy for them but upset about my loss as watching my final from the crowd was something I was not used to.
MY HOBBIES
In my free time, I take part in numerous activities such as kickboxing, high diving, tricking and parkour all in preparation for my joining the British stunt register as my future career as a stunt performer. I also spend a lot of time collecting clips of all these activities to put together for showreels to send out to agent its and clients.
My favourite foods will have to include steaks, curries, jerk chicken and rice and a classic Sunday roast!
Within the gymnastics world my goals are to;
- medal individually at a senior world championships
-medal individually and as a team at senior European championships
- compete and medal at the world games in 2022 (our Olympic equivalent)
- win the British championships
Outside of gymnastics, I am pursuing a career as a stunt performer therefore my goals for that will be to make it onto the British stunt register, complete many years of stunt contracts as my dream is to do stunts for marvel. after all this I would like to pursue a career as a stunt coordinator who creates and oversees all stunts that take place on set.
Who are we?
Sports For Champions UK (CIC) in partnership with The Westwood Academy and the local community are running a fundraiser to help support the mental and physical health of the pupils after the national lockdowns.
Great news! Sports For Champions UK (CIC) will soon visit your school! Youth are invited to join a sponsored fitness circuit led by a Professional athlete, who will educate, enable, and empower participants with a view to inspire them as champions of tomorrow.
While we’re not all athletically inclined we strongly encourage participation, because all youth have talent and require inspiration to pursue their dreams - whatever they may be! After 10 years of success, we can promise a highly memorable event!
Sports For Champions events are held in support of schools, which keep 60% of the funds raised to spend on resources that will enrich young peoples’ education/experience. Professional athletes in need of support are the only other beneficiaries from the remaining 40%. Sports For Champions is an audited organization that is voluntarily registered with the Fundraising Regulator. You can support the initiative with assurance.
During the assembly, Sports For Champions athletes show medals and tell their story, hard work, lessons, and insights shared to capture the imagination of all and inspire healthier active lifestyles. Athletes discuss challenges on the road to success, with resilience, nutrition, diet, and dedication forming key topics. Fitness is essential for every young person’s general wellbeing in physical and mental health. It is also proven to be a strong booster of learning potential or brain power. By inspiring children as champions of tomorrow, Sports For Champions envision youth growing in all walks of life as healthy, [pro] active community-minded talents.
Alongside Team Sports For Champions, athletes invest in local communities to avail of support with training-related costs (e.g. physio/travel). Most world-class athletes train a rigorous 35hr week and struggle to find reliable work that fits their schedule. This is how the funds we raise enable athletes and your school/club to realise their potential. Many pro athletes are unsponsored, lose support, or cannot find it.
Sports For Champions offers schools the benefit of an added investment on resources/facilities, whilst helping athletes with the funds required to sustain their journey with a contribution towards training and competition fees, medical costs, equipment, and more.
The Westwood Academy will be receiving an inspirational visit from renowned Team World Champion Jaydon Paddock on the 6th of May 2022 and we need your support!
The pupils will benefit from Physical activity, an inspirational talk including medal display and a Q&A session.
Why is this important?
The Westwood Academy is promoting health and wellbeing throughout the school and with the help of a visit from Team World Champion Jaydon Paddock, this will be enhanced as a school, they are also focussing on encouraging diversity and raising the aspirations of the pupils through sport.
The Westwood Academy will benefit from the money raised as they will be able to invest in new equipment and fund opportunities for the children in afterschool clubs.
How can you help?
We're asking all parents to help make it a memorable event for the pupils with the help of Jaydon Paddock and to raise funds for key resources for The Westwood Academy.
If you are a local business or a friend of the school and would like to contribute to help us get to our target then please do make a donation and share our project as far as you can.