Former Paralympian swimmer Ellie Simmonds inspires Derbyshire pupils to 'dream, believe and achieve' during school visit

Staveley Junior School headteacher Sue Parkes said the school was thrilled to welcome Ellie after the children had been involved in renaming their houses to match the school motto of Dream, Believe, Achieve.

She added: “Children researched key figures and then presented what they had found to the rest of their class – asking them to vote for the person they felt was the most inspirational.

"Ellie was one of those people and Staveley Juniors are very proud that they now have a Simmonds house. The school contacted Ellie to let her know and she was thrilled to have a house named after her and out of that came plans for a visit.

“Ellie spent most of the morning at school and delivered an assembly about how she had fulfilled her dream and shared what had allowed her to succeed as well as sharing some of her amazing medals with the children. Ellie then spent time outside with the children while they ran their Daily Mile challenge and was able to encourage and cheer them on to run as many laps of the Daily Mile track as they could in 15 minutes. There was great excitement across the whole school and as one of the children said “Ellie is all of those things in one – dream, believe and achieve!”

Ellie came to national attention when she competed in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, winning two gold medals for Great Britain.