Last week we enjoyed a special visit from Kylie Grimes. She won Gold in the Tokyo Paralympics in the wheelchair rugby.

Kylie and Chloe ran fitness circuits for children across the school. These included 1 minute exercises of spotty dogs, star jumps, knee drives (in a plank position) and push ups! They were both amazed at how Keep Hatch children did not give up and at their level of fitness. The teachers also enjoyed joining in with their class. Freddie in Sparrows received a special sports for schools bracelet because he was strong while completing his push ups and he showed good determination to keep going.

After the fitness circuits Kylie hosted an assembly for the school where she spoke about her inspirational story and journey to become a gold medallist. The children listened carefully. She explained how she had been really active as a child and enjoyed playing sport and horse riding. She always wanted to represent her country. After a diving accident, as an adult, she became wheelchair bound. Rather than let this deter her from her dream, she look into para sports and joined a local para wheelchair rugby team.

She explained how their first attempt at the London 2012 Paralympics saw the wheelchair rugby team come in 5th place. Kylie then tried an individual sport at Rio 2016 and came in 4th place but she still wanted that medal! So she explained how she came back and trained for another 4 years and at the Tokyo Paralympics finally won her gold medal with the wheelchair rugby team. This was extra special as she was the only girl on the team.

Her message to all the children was very clear- no matter what do not give up on your dream and to work around any obstacles that come your way.

The children then watched a short clip of Kylie in action and had a chance for questions. They asked some wonderful questions about resilience and determination.

Here are some more children’s comments-

‘I liked when we learnt about Kylie’s journey and the exercise circuit was very fun. She told us about her story and this inspired me to chase my dreams’ Sophia 

‘Kylie told me about her time at the Paralympics and this inspired me not to give up. She also showed me her Gold medal’ Olivia 

‘Kylie Grimes inspired me to do more exercise and keep fit’ Izzy 

‘I wore my rugby socks because I play rugby too and I asked her for tips for someone who plays Rugby’ Eli

‘We were really worried about our cross country competition and now we feel so much more confident and we are going to give it our all because of Kylie and her inspiration’ Sienna Rose and Sienna 

Enjoy the photos and we hope your children will remember Kylie’s visit for a long time and continue to feel inspired by her journey to a gold medal.

Mrs Somerville and Miss Connelly