Award-winning nursery group, Fennies, is thrilled to announce that one of their partners, Paralympian Dame Sarah Storey, has been nominated for Sports Personality of the Year 2021! It is a privilege to be working with such an inspiring and motivational woman such as Dame Sarah who has won 17 gold medals and is one of the most successful Paralympians of all time.
Dame Sarah shows us that with hard work, the right attitude and determination we can achieve anything. This is an essential message for children to understand in order to overcome any hardships in life, and that working hard to achieve our goals is extremely important. Dame Sarah was told by a swimming teacher that she had started training too late (at the age of ten) to be “good at anything”. With all of this going against her, she continued to train as a swimmer and went on to compete in Barcelona Paralympics winning two gold, three silvers and a bronze at the age of 14!
This is proof that Dame Sarah is a true inspiration and is one of the reasons we chose to work with her, and to highlight the importance of early years education for child development. At the Eltham nursery (one of Fennies 13 sites) which Dame Sarah has visited, toddlers have access to a custom designed garden for outdoor play as well as an enhanced approach to the early years curriculum which includes well-being activities, PE, a STEM programme, focused art sessions, language lessons taught by linguistics coaches and yoga sessions.
Dame Sarah said of the partnership that she is “delighted to have partnered with Fennies to be able to share more about their Early Years facilities. As a mum of two I am passionate about the opportunities available to young people and the Fennies ethos really resonates with what is important to me as a parent.”
We wish Dame Sarah the best of luck with her nomination and will be doing all we can to support her. We will be encouraging parents to vote via internal communications and swill be campaigning on social media, so that when voting opens on Sunday night everyone is ready to vote for Dame Sarah.
Voting will open during the awards ceremony on Sunday 19th December and the winner will be presented during the BBC Sports Personality of the Year show live on BBC One.