The programme promotes Unified Sports, Inclusive Youth Leadership, and Whole School Engagement.
Unified Champion Schools, the Special Olympics UAE’s flagship programme that was relaunched at the start of the academic year 2021-2022, has launched an extensive programme for the second term.
Kicking off its term two calendar with programming targeting both students and teachers is designed to promote social inclusion in three key areas: Unified Sports, Inclusive Youth Leadership, and Whole School Engagement.
Offering a flexible hybrid model of virtual and in-person events, Unified Robotics 2022 season launches on 6 February with each school entering one unified team, either in the primary and secondary age group.
The competition season provides diverse tools and experiences such as, coding robot simulations and complete challenges on a dedicated competition platform. Half of unified school team members are neurodiverse students, who compete alongside their unified partners (students without intellectual and developmental disabilities) and work together to learn the fundamentals of coding.
The competition is the largest robotics competition for neurodiverse students in the region, opened registration this January.
More than 400 government and private schools across the UAE have committed to making their school communities more inclusive this year by registering for Unified Champion Schools.
The programme also offers teachers significant training and development resources to empower them to run Unified Sports activities successfully in their schools, in a bid to become more inclusive and to bring about positive change to school communities.
Other Unified Sports programs rolled out to schools include Unified Football and Unified Badminton in order to promote inclusion and meaningful involvement between students of diverse abilities through physical activity.
His Excellency Talal Al Hashemi, National Director of Special Olympics UAE, said: “We are delighted to see the hundreds of schools nationwide embrace and adopt the values of Unified Champion Schools to achieve inclusion across school communities.
“Whether in-person or virtual, Unified Champion Schools provides resources and tools to support students and teachers to create their own inclusive school community.”
Schools are encouraged to register for the Unified Champion Schools at any point year-round to access the wide array of resources and inclusive programming offered by Special Olympics UAE.
Registration is open via the Special Olympics UAE.
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