YMCA Barry Gymnastics Club become the first sports club in the Vale of Glamorgan to receive prestigious award.

YMCA Barry Gymnastics Club are ecstatic to have been presented with the Gold Standard, Insport Award, by Disability Sport Wales.

The first sports club in the Vale of Glamorgan to have reached this standard of the award. The Insport Awards are a series of accreditations which require certain specifications to be met which YMCA Barry have been completing over the last three years.

In 2017 they achieved the Ribbon Award, 2018 the Bronze, 2019 the Silver and now in 2020 the Gold. To achieve each level of accreditation the club has to provide evidence of good practise in areas of safeguarding, safe and efficient practises, all polices & procedures are in place and staff development & training are implemented. In addition to all of this, the club must demonstrate a commitment to providing inclusive classes to children who have additional needs or otherwise may find it difficult to access sport.

The team at YMCA Barry were able to demonstrate that they provide high quality lessons for all levels and abilities which are inclusive and treat all children as individuals by tailoring lessons to their individual requirements. The club also have a dedicated class for children with additional needs to work towards Welsh Gymnastics Inclusion competitions.

Once all of the evidence of the above was completed and verified by Welsh Gymnastics and Disability Sport Wales, YMCA Barry coaching staff put together a presentation for an expert panel. This included staff members from Sport Wales, Disability Sport Wales, Welsh Gymnastics and Vale of Glamorgan Sport and Play Team, all of whom decided the final outcome of the award. YMCA Barry staff Sophie Erickson, Gymnastics Manager, Gareth Slocombe, Head of Male GymJuniors, Trampolining & Disability Gymnastics and Megan Cooke, Head of Under 5’s Gymnastics presented to the panel information regarding the clubs passion to provide gymnastics to as many children in the community as possible so every child can benefit from the sport. After a short deliberation the panel confirmed that YMCA Barry had met the criteria of the Gold Award with flying colours and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive with one of the panel clarifying that it was the best insport presentation he had seen from any previous sports club.

Sophie Erickson, YMCA Barry Gymnastics Manager said: “We as a club are extremely proud to have achieved the Gold Insport Award from Disability Sport Wales and the recognition for the hard work myself and the coaching team have put into the club’s development to provide an inclusive programme is fantastic. We are very excited to progress the club further with many projects being planned.”

This is a fantastic achievement for all the staff at YMCA Barry. YMCA Barry Gymnastics Club is the most successful gymnastics club in the Vale of Glamorgan with an extensive programme. The club is a high performance club with a long history of gymnasts representing Wales at numerous Commonwealth Games in Men’s & Women’s Artistic Gymnastics.

In addition, the club has parent and baby/toddler drop in classes, inclusive independent preschool classes, inclusive after school and Saturday classes for girls and boys of all abilities, Trampolining, Tumbling Gymnastics and Competitive Disability. For more information please call 01446 724000, email sophie@ymcabarry.org.uk or follow on social media @ymcabarry