GALLERY: Pride of River Beach awards ceremony

Last Wednesday, the children invited many people to attend, including Jump Start Jonny, doctors and nurses from Great Ormond Street Hospital and the proud parents of Tim Peake.

These are only a few of the many people who were present. There were also representatives for the fire and rescue service, the RNLI and the Naval Cadet Corps.

The pupils created this original event because they wanted to say a huge thank you to the many people who helped around the community. This they did in a modern and remarkable way. Also, by doing this, it helped them with their topic, Heroes and Villains.

They completed this ambitious idea by first selecting possible candidates and writing speeches to persuade other students to nominate their hero.

Next, there was an election to select winners and pupils all wrote letters of invitation to the nominees and local dignitaries.

After that, the pupils needed to do lots of preparation which included many singing practice sessions, designing a certificate and writing a script, but that is only some of the many tasks that were needed to be completed.

During the ceremony, there were two performances from the children and speeches were read out explaining why each recipient had been chosen for an award. Also, there were cakes and biscuits for the nominees to nibble on.

One of the candidates said: “It was amazing, I was welling up and had to do all I could to not cry.”

The great things about this amazing event were that heroes, who are a lot of the time not recognised as that, were rewarded for all their work. As well as this, the pupils proved that they were capable of working as a team and taking responsibility more than they usually would. This was surely a day to be remembered.

Winners of the Pride of River Beach awards included ‘inspirational spaceman’ Tim Peake.

Angela and Nigel Peake, Tim’s parents, attended the awards ceremony at the Littlehampton school last Wednesday to accept the award on his behalf.

In a letter to head teacher Judy Grevett, they said: “It was a real pleasure to meet such confident, polite and lively young people, and their organisation of the afternoon was outstanding.

“We went a photo of Tim’s award to him on the International Space Station and he was delighted, and sends his sincere thanks.”

Other winners were:

Simon Allchin, fundraiser for Stonepillow, for running ten miles a day for 31 days, dressed as Superman.

Carly Lake, who helps disabled children have access to horse-riding at Ferring Country Centre.

Jordan Farden, football coach at Littlehampton Town Youth FC.

Jump Start Jonny for creating a website and visiting schools to enthuse children about healthy living.

Dylan Tester, a year-six pupil at River Beach, for overcoming a serious illness and remaining positive.

Jinhua Xu-Bayford and Prof Adrian Thrasher from Great Ormond Street Hospital, who took the lead in Dylan’s treatment.

Tina Reynolds, caring mum, nurse and childminder.

Petre Stojanovski for providing free meals to the needy and surviving a life-threatening fall from a ladder.

Graham Harmour, a firefighter, for helping in his local community and raising seven children.

PC Claudine Bishop for helping children stay safe online and in the community.

Jordon Okonta, who took part in Special Olympics in LA, for facing challenges with enthusiasm.

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