We were delighted to be visited by the super talented paralympic cycling and current World Champion Katie-George Dunleavy who kindly paid us a visit to show off her unbelievable medals. We all gathered in the church and welcomed Katie with an original song ‘Katie-George you’re the best!’ which was written by 3rd class and their teacher, Ms Honner.

Katie-George spoke to us about all the hard work she puts in with her training to enable her to compete at the highest level and we were very impressed to hear that she is already eyeing up the next Paralympics! We were also blown away to hear about her serious injury which she had in the lead up to the paralympics. Thankfully, it didn’t result in her having to pull out from competing. What a brave athlete. Following this the children were given the opportunity to ask Katie-George some questions. We learned that she enjoys porridge for breakfast, she sometimes gets noticed when she’s out in public, and she trains every single day! We also learned that Katie-George did not win every race or competition she ever entered. She spoke to us about the times she lost, and she told us this is where she learned the most about herself and her sport. This is a hugely valuable lesson for us all to learn, we can’t always win everything, but it's important to always keep trying and working, even when it’s difficult, hard work pays off!

After all of our questions were answered, each class got the opportunity to take their picture with Katie-George and we even got to hold and pose with her medals. What an inspiring day! We would also like to say a huge thank you to Maija for facilitating this visit, it meant the world to us.