Sports students from Harrow College have completed a course with Boccia England called the ‘Boccia Young Officials Award’. The course introduced the sixteen young students to the skills and knowledge required to be an effective Boccia official.
Boccia is a precision ball sport, related to bowls. The aim of the game is to throw leather balls — coloured red or blue as close as they can to a white target ball, or jack. The sport is contested by athletes with severe physical disabilities. In 1984, it became a Paralympic sport, and in 2008 was being practised in over fifty countries worldwide.
This specific course was designed to cover the important elements of refereeing a game of Boccia within the community and to support organisations such as the London Youth Games (Europe's largest youth sports festival) with forthcoming event in 2017.
By completing the course in early February 2017, the students now have a detailed understanding of the different roles and responsibilities of a Boccia official, as well as the rules of Boccia and the development of skills to apply these rules in a game situation. The course will also support the students to complete a unit from their BTEC Sports course called "Rules, Regulation and Officiating in Sport".
Philip Munroe, Curriculum Coordinator for Sport at Harrow College, organised the course. As a previously qualified Boccia official himself, Philip recognised that this course would enable students to obtain an additional qualification whilst also developing their ability of supporting less able body participants within sport. Commenting after the course, Philip said “the future goal is to develop our learners within this sport so they can progress to becoming regional officials and support clubs up and down the country”.
Click here for more information on Sports courses at Harrow College