A nice early start set me off on my journey to Heath Primary School in Ipswich. I had to be there for a 9am start along with Olympic Fencer Richard Kruse. Heath Primary School had been lucky enough to win an athlete visit to their school due to submitting an amazing idea telling us about their Paralympic Handover celebrations.

This was part of the 'gold medal idea' competition a scheme produced by a school contacting us with their plans on how they were going to celebrate Paralympic Handover. Every two weeks the school with the best idea was announced as the gold medal idea for the following two weeks, and as a prize they receive an athlete visit.

Arriving at the school in my London 2012 tracksuit I had a lot of heads turning. I was hoping that they hadn't confused me with being an athlete, although I don't think there was much chance of that! So we had all arrived at the school, there I was representing London 2012, Rob Coy representing VISA and Richard Kruse the Olympic Fencer.

The three of us waited outside the classroom whilst the teachers tried to settle the excited 10 and 11 year olds who were all trying to peer around the door to see us. On entering the classroom all eyes turned to Richard as he took to the stage and spoke to the children about who he was, what Fencing was all about and told them about his experiences in Beijing.

Richard demonstrating how to stand when you're Fencing:



He also bought his Fencing equipment along with him so they all passed it around, some of them were even lucky enough to try his mask on:



Luckily he didn't pass his sword around, as we could have had a few eyes out!

After Richard had finished presenting he gave the children the chance to ask questions. They all had some really sensible questions and they even , managed to get Richard to strike a few lunges!

Once Richard had finished, Rob from VISA got up to explain to the students who VISA are and for how long they have sponsored the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This was something the children hadn’t expected to learn about so they all listened on eagerly.

Then at last it was my turn...I stood up and showed the students a quick presentation which included some facts about London 2012. The children were most shocked after learning that if all of the tickets sold at the Games were given to their class only then there would be enough tickets for each student to have 30,000. All the teachers thought that it would be a great idea for them to have them all!! This then sparked a lot of interest and had me answering all sorts of questions.

Overall we all had a wonderful morning at the school and I think the teachers and the children both learnt a lot. Heath Primary School was even lucky enough to get Richard Kruse to sign a tile for their 'Wall of Challenges', which was started due to Paralympic Handover celebrations.

There's nothing like seeing young people celebrating the Olympic and Paralympic values.