Paralympian inspires Baughurst school pupils at prizegiving

The evening opened with an address by the headteacher, Malcolm Christian, who praised all the prizewinners and thanked them for contributing to another year of record-breaking results at the school.
This was followed by the distribution of more than 60 prizes by special guests Stephen Sheedy, the principal of Queen Mary’s College, Basingstoke, who presented the academic prizes and paralympian, television presenter and actor, Ade Adepitan, who presented the sports awards.
The latter included charity fundraisers Loddon Valley Lions’ Sports Personality of the Year award, which went to Alice Pickup, and the David Evans Rugby Player of the Year (Cameron Saint).
Mr Adepitan also presented the Colin McLeod Cricket Player of the Year (Cameron Saint) and Soccer Player of the Year (Charlie Cunningham) while Bethany Evans scooped the Tadley Netball Club Trophy.
The deputy headteacher Tim Martin said: “Mr Adepitan inspired the audience by recounting his personal journey to success, providing a powerful example of how one should never give up.”
Born in Nigeria, Mr Adepitan uses a wheelchair after contracting polio as a chlld. After emigrating, aged three, with his family to London, he became an accomplished wheelchair basketball player for his club, Milton Keynes Aces and was a member of the Great Britain bronze medal-winning team in the 2004 summer paralympics in Athens and the gold medal winning 2005 Paralympic World Cup team in Manchester.
Before presenting the academic prizes, Mr Sheedy praised the current generation in his speech and entertained the audience with anecdotes illustrating how his own generation was less than perfect during their own school days.
The school’s prizewinners included Emma Cope, who has raised almost £50,000 for the kidney charity, NeST (Nephrotic Syndrome Trust), who was presented with The Eric Cook Award and also a prize, for Excellence in Information Technology. Former pupil Hazel Jackson, who is now studying law at Cambridge University, was awarded the Queen Mary’s College prize.
The school’s popular former head of mathematics, John Houston, who is emigrating to Australia, received The Hurst School Prize.
Other prizewinners included Alex Smith (excellence in mathematics), Hollie Burne-Bailey (William Penney Prize for Achievement in Dual Science) and Joshua Barton (The Glyn Bond Technology Cup – Engineering).
Six headteacher’s awards, sponsored by Tadley Town Council, went to James Green, Amy Collins, Fiona Pink, Connie Denton, Sarah Bourne and Laurence Hall, while the Champion House Shield went to Challenger House.
Readings were given by Year 10 pupils Will Maidment and Sarah Alexander, and a vote of thanks and a presentation was made by Year 11 pupils and head boy and girl Matthew England and Sam Lane.