Record climber Bonita Norris visits school
She was the youngest British woman to conquer Everest - and Bonita Norris gave Wolverhampton students some words of wisdom about how they can reach their potential at a night celebrating their achievements.
The inspirational young climber was at Moreton School's awards evening.
In 2010 she became the youngest British woman to summit the world's highest peak, at the age of 22.
Alex Vann, reprographics manager at the Fallings Lane school, said it was a great event celebrating recent achievements at the school over the past two years, including the 'good' Ofsted rating given to the school after its last inspection.
Miss Norris' presentation had been empowering and emotional, Mr Vann said, and had been received very well: "She spoke a lot about the struggles there are to reach the summit, how difficult it is physically. She described it very well, she is quite an animated, emotional speaker.
"We felt her emotion at the top as she spoke of this feeling of looking down on the world - you actually see the curve of the earth - and how it will stay with her for life. It was quite emotional, everyone was gripped. It was really very empowering."
The challenges leading up to the expedition, such as having to source £50,000 in funding in six months and facing rejection after rejection for the first five, taught the students about perseverance and not giving up on your dreams.
Special awards for 2013 included Sportsman of the Year, awarded to Josue Mangolo, Sportswoman of the Year, awarded to Dulce De Sousa, Headteachers Award for Academic Excellence awarded to Paige Ambrozewicz, and Student of the Year Jessica Terry.
The Margaret Boyd Challenge Award was given to Kallum Jones, who had a 'somewhat turbulent both his private and school life, and worked with staff to move from alternative provision to fulltime at Moreton School, achieving eight GCSEs.
The 2014 special awards went to Reece Rafferty for Sportsman of the Year, Sportswoman of the Year was awarded to Courtney Simmons, the Headteacher Award for Academic Excellence went to Jade Bourne, and Robert Toscano was named Student of the Year.
As well as student awards, outstanding achievement awards were given to teachers Julie and Graham Foster, who have each taught at the school for more than 30 years.
Recently retired dinner ladies Julia Allport-Turner and Sue Dougliss also received outstanding achievement awards, clocking up 34 years with Wolverhampton City Council, 14 at Moreton School, and serving 500,000 dinners in that time.
