Teacher who did marathon as emu to run with pupils

A deputy headteacher who completed the London Marathon dressed as an emu is to run the distance again at his school to let his students join in.

Tom Brown, who works at Woodlands Meed in Burgess Hill, West Sussex, will run another 26.2 miles (42km) at the school and college sites on Friday.

The event, dubbed the Tomathon, sees students at the special needs school invited to run, walk or wheel a lap or more with the teacher.

Mr Brown said: "Anything we can do to inspire the next generation of students with special educational needs (SEN) to know they can give anything a try regardless of disability is something we are all passionate about."

Woodlands Meed has more than 250 students aged between two and 19.

Mr Brown added that his motivation for running and fundraising was for students to be able to "try something new, or activities that ordinarily might not be accessible to young people with SEN".

"All the money we raise will go towards giving all the students better access to sporting activities, which is particularly important for our students where opportunities can be more complex to access," he added.

He completed the London Marathon in just over four hours.

The Tomathon is part of a week of activities at the school to promote getting active, including an "aerobathon, swimathon and bounceathon", he added.

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