Teacher joins sports elite for Games talk

School Games organiser Vicky Dean from Failsworth School (right). with British Paralympic Gold Medal winner Sarah Storey and Minister jeremy Hunt.

A FAILSWORTH High School teacher rubbed shoulders with sporting greats at an Olympic summit at Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground.

Vicky Dean joined Word Cup winner Sir Bobby Charlton and Paralympic gold medallist Sarah Storey OBE.

The venue will host some of the football matches at this summer’s Olympics.

Vicky, partnership development manager of Failsworth School Sport Partnership — which works across several schools — was one of three speakers at yesterday’s summit on the new School Games competition.

The competition is part of the Government’s school sports strategy and will hold its inaugural finals at the Olympic Park in London in May.

The event was hosted by culture secretary Jeremy Hunt and the other speakers were Julie Hazeldine, head teacher of Flixton Girls’ School and Richard Saunders, chief executive of Greater Manchester County Sports Partnership.

Mr Hunt also held a back-to-back summit with more than 100 local businesses and tourism leaders about how they can benefit from the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics. He said: “It was absolutely fantastic to be at Old Trafford today. The 2012 Games offer huge opportunities to businesses in the North West, and I urge everyone to get on board with making the most of them.”