Students from New Rickstones Academy and Maltings Academy helped host the East of England Deaf Boccia competition.

Students from New Rickstones Academy and Maltings Academy helped host the East of England Deaf Boccia competition.

Nine schools from the eastern counties came together at New Rickstones Academy, in Conrad Road, to compete in the event.

Students from both Witham schools prepared for the event by learning basic sign language.

Ben Collier, a Year Eight pupil at NewRickstones, said: “We have been helping out by refereeing the games. The games have been really tense as they can change by one roll of a ball. I didn’t know anything about the game until I had my training for today.

“It has been fascinating to see how the children communicate.

They might be deaf, but they are not any different to us. This has been a great way to try out our sign language.”

Liberty Griffin, a Year Nine pupil at Maltings, said: “This is the first time we’ve had the opportunity to use the sign language we have learnt for real. It has been great to be able to tell the children ‘well done’, you can definitely tell it means a lot to them.”