Something I found, about the same time I discovered there was such a thing as “sailing” after switching CNBC on one Sunday morning 😛
They’ve been working on this for a few years, the following Youtubes are from when they first got their boats (some from eBay*!) and then did some of their own refurbishments as part of school work in 2015, saying for some of these kids it would help keep them away from “crime and unsocial behaviour”..)
Several years later, just 775 views at press time… I especially liked when they said “if you work hard at something, at the end, there are great rewards”
This one, posted not by the school but by Halcyon Yachts also from 2015 with the beautifully meh introductory comment, “Greig City Academy, an inner city state school in London, have bought an old race boat” 😀
…and here’s the prestigious Rolex Fastnet race they just competed in 2 years later (minute 11), placing 144th out of 368 entries…
“They started from nothing… A group of teenaged students led by their Geography teacher took on sailing’s biggest offshore event, the Rolex Fastnet Race… Until 3 years ago, none had any idea about sailing, let alone racing 600 miles offshore… and why should they, the Greig City Academy is an inner London school in a deprived area…there couldn’t be fewer links to the sea…and even fewer to sailing…”
pic from article
Movie rights, anyone? (Haha they’re probably already in talks… super funding opportunity for this inner-city school 🙂 )
ps: This article really struck me, because it occurred to me how hard it must have been for some of these kids to reach their goal – yet they managed anyway. Some of my mum’s students used to be so exhausted in class – not from tuition or ECAs, but from helping their parents in night market stalls, or waiting tables or raising younger siblings…
My mum taught (English) in upper secondary public schools her entire ~40 years of work life, and some of the schools were in the toughest neighbourhoods (by “tough” I mean “drove-her-new-car-to-school-and-it-got-carved-up-before-lunch-because-no-one-knew-yet-that-it-was-hers tough”) and yes that was the apology she got, along with offers to beat the perpetrators up…
