Sports

David Filmer: Sports Day


David Filmer was born in 1970 in London. At six his family moved to Hampshire, where he attended his local mainstream primary school. Then aged ten he went to two residential special schools, first in Reading and then Hampshire. He returned to the mainstream at sixteen, attending a local sixth form college and went on to university.

Here David describes taking part in the School Sports Day.

  • David Filmer
https://howwasschool.allfie.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/sports-day.mp3

Transcript

I used to participate in School Sports Day and things like that and be encouraged to do so, and I was very good at the, the Wheelbarrow Race. One of the other kids would take my feet and hold my feet up in the air, and of course having such a powerful upper body, I would always win that one 'cause I could crawl very fast. And we'd do the Egg and Spoon Race with another kid pushing the wheelchair and things like that, and we'd do that on the playing field, it didn't have to be done on an asphalt court or anything like that, so very much about putting me in there in the thick of it, you know, no matter what, and making the most out of it. So I never, I never sort of felt that I was left on the sidelines at primary school, I was very lucky in that respect I think 'cause I think, had I been more severely disabled, or not been surrounded by people with a good positive attitude, I would probably have been left out, a lot more of the time, and that would have been something which I'm sure would have had a greater impact on my self-confidence later on in life.

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