Meet the mother-and-daughter team inspiring a generation of gymnasts in Sunderland

A mother and daughter are living out their dream after opening Grindon Gymnastics Club and are hoping to inspire a new generation of gymnasts and even future Olympians.

Jane Henderson has been a gymnastics coach since the age of 14 and used to run after-school gymnastics classes while working as a teacher at what was then named Grindon Hall School.

However, after 25 years in the teaching profession, Jane was “ready for a change” and embarked on turning her passion for gymnastics into a full-time career, along with the help of her daughter, Lauren Henderson.

Jane said: “I’d always coached gymnastics as well as competing myself. I had decided I wanted a change from working as a teacher and I’ve always wanted to own my own gymnastics centre.

“It was difficult running the sessions from the school hall as we were constantly having to get the equipment out and pack it away and we couldn’t use certain apparatus such as the bars because they need to be permanently fixed to the ground.”

Jane left academic teaching in July 2019 and in August of the same year set up Grindon Gymnastics Club as a Community Interest Company.

She said: “We used a church hall to run sessions for about six weeks but eventually secured a suitable site which was already registered for gym use.

“We enlisted the help of the parents who helped to paint the interior and invested a lot of money in the facilities we now have.

“We managed to open in October 2019 and entered our first competition, which we won. However Covid then hit and we had to temporarily close, although we still continued to run online Zoom sessions for children at home.”

After reopening post pandemic the club has gone from strength to strength, and now has in excess of 350 children aged from six months to 18 taking part in daily sessions as well as during the school holidays.

As well as fulfilling her own personal ambition, as a former British Gymnastics champion in 1988 and 1989, Jane also wanted to ensure the city’s children had the chance to access gymnastics and hopefully one day fulfil their own sporting dreams. 

She added: “Newcastle, Gateshead and South Tyneside have their own gymnastics centres and before we opened many children would have to travel there from Sunderland.

“For some families relying on public transport this isn’t an option and so the city’s children were missing out.

“We are now the only dedicated performance gymnastics centre in Sunderland. Gymnastics is such a brilliant sport and the physical skills children develop form the basic fundamentals for lots of other sports such as tennis, rugby and football.”

Jane has been joined on the gymnastic club’s journey by daughter Lauren who teamed up with her mother after finishing her Art and Design degree at university.

Lauren, 29, said: “I’ve always been a gymnast. I love the sport and it’s something I’ve always wanted to be involved in.

“I used to help my mother with her after-school classes but I didn’t think I’d ever be in a position where I could do gymnastics as a job.

“It’s really rewarding and fantastic to see the children’s faces light up when they learn a new move.

“I still make use of my degree by designing the club’s kit and leotards.”

One of the club’s most successful members is 12-year-old Sandhill View Academy student Lily Casey, who after winning a regional final became the only gymnast in Sunderland to represent the Tyne and Wear and Northumberland Counties.

Lily said: “I’ve been attending the club since I was six and I really enjoy it. I remember learning how to do back flips when I had just started and I now love performing to music on the floor.

“I would like to compete for Great Britain one day.”

Nia Thompson, 10, who attends Castletown Primary School and has been part of the club for three years, added: “I enjoy coming to the club and I love doing lots of flips. 

“I really like taking part in the competitions and it would be amazing to compete in the Olympics one day.

“Lauren and Jane have taught me a lot and have been very helpful.”

Jane also hopes the club can provide wider benefits for the children.

She said: “We do lots of activities, trips and even sleepovers and many of the children develop friendships. It also gets children out of the house and keeping healthy and active, which is also really important.”

It’s a sentiment shared by Martha Meller, nine, who said: “It’s really important to keep fit and healthy and if I wasn’t here then I would probably just be at home and in the house.”

Jane and Lauren also wanted to thank the North East Business Innovation Centre for helping them to set up the enterprise and for their guidance during the pandemic.

There are spaces on the club’s pre-school Gym Gems class. For further details email [email protected]