School Personality of the Year
Les Dearman
Les Dearman is much more than just a Physics and Maths teacher at Maiden Erlegh School. He commits himself to every single facet of school life to provide a huge range sporting and active opportunities for his students.
Four Duke of Edinburgh expeditions across Bronze and Silver, are all run by Les. In addition, he willingly volunteers his free time to ferry pupils around in the school minibus to compete in sports fixtures. In fact, Les volunteers at all our sporting events – whether that is Sports Day, Sports Personality of the Year or prize giving evenings. As a talented photographer, he is also regularly on hand to capture these precious memories for students and their families.
This year, Les took part in a 6th Form students vs staff charity football match at school, helping to raise £600 for the Congo Children’s Trust. What he lacks in footballing talent, he made up for in effort!
His willingness to give up his time so freely and to support staff and students alike, make Les is a real legend at Maiden Erlegh.
Junior Team of the Year
Kendrick School’s key stage 3 & 4 Badminton Teams
It’s been a real year of success for Kendrick School’s key stage 3 & 4 Badminton Teams. Both triumphed in their respective age groups at the prestigious National Schools Badminton Championships, run by Badminton England.
The National Finals were held on Saturday 20 April at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes where they competed against eight other schools from across the country. The journey to success began long before that however, having negotiated two previous rounds to become the Team South Central representatives in the finals.
The big day included a group stage, which both of Kendrick’s age groups won convincingly, ahead of a triumphant Semi-final and Final. There, four students in each team performed brilliantly alongside a real show of good sportsmanship qualities throughout.
Kendrick is so proud of their achievements and we now have 2 lovely trophies to show for it. Winning both age groups was an especially difficult feat which makes it even more special.
Junior Sports Personality of the Year
Olivier Mazur
Olivier Mazur has demonstrated exceptional dedication, determination, and resilience in both his academic and athletic pursuits over the past year.
Despite the demanding pressure of his GCSE exams, Oliver has squeezed in time to represent Great Britain at both the European Junior Championships and at the Olympic Hopes Regatta, showcasing his talent on an international stage.
It’s also been a year in which Olivier has dominated national competitions, becoming National Champion in the K1 U16 1000m, K1 U16 500m, K2 U16 500m, and K4 U16 500m. He also secured a silver medal in the K1 U16 200m and became the National Marathon Champion in the K2 U16 category. His incredible accomplishments across a variety of distances and boat classes reflect his amazing versatility, work ethic, and skill in the sport of kayaking.
Olivier exemplifies what it means to be a young athlete: balancing academic pressures with an unwavering commitment to sport, striving for excellence in all aspects of life, and consistently pushing boundaries to achieve greatness, all of which go towards making him a real role model for his peers.
Helper/ Loyalty Award
Jill Harbridge Hui
Jill Harbridge Hui and Reading Canoe Club go hand in hand. A genuine unsung hero who always goes the extra mile, Jill began as Club Secretary in 2016 and the following year took on the crucial role of leading our approach to welfare and safeguarding, not to mention acting as an invaluable advisor to the Club’s Chair and committee.
Since then, the club has gone from strength to strength, increasing its active paddling membership, especially amongst our Juniors, and successfully becoming a Talent Club partner in 2018 with British Canoeing (now Paddle UK) and growing our junior development and performance groups. Each year sees between 60 – 90 Juniors in regular training, with a similar number of beginners attending taster sessions, courses or camps. We could not do this without Jill’s considerable time commitment and dedication in what is an essential, yet sometimes thankless, task!
Jill has been at the forefront of driving change, including: helping draft the appropriate codes of conduct for all groups of members; working with the junior coaches to instil the importance of safeguarding; establishing a small welfare coordinator panel to support the welfare officers; promoting and coordinating safeguarding training for our committee, coaches and developing coaches, and those involved with Juniors; developing supporting junior coaches to understand and manage the welfare and wellbeing of junior beginners (and how to manage their parents / guardians!) and providing tasters sessions, courses and camps, where we seek to support opportunities for children from across Reading to try kayaking in a safe and friendly way – managing individuals from a broad range of backgrounds and abilities.
Jill has also supported coaches, and several adult and Junior members through some difficult times and led the coordination of annual opportunities for Reading Children in Care to experience kayaking (some returning for several years in a row).
All of this, Jill has done as a volunteer (she does not paddle) whilst balancing a busy professional and family life.
