On Wednesday 4^th May, we had a very special visitor. Ben Smith was running his 247^th marathon in as many days, in and around Grantham and the route included our playground.

You may have recently seen Ben Smith in the news as he is currently in the middle of a challenge to run a marathon a day for 401 days. Ben will be the first person in the world to run this many consecutive marathons and he wasn't even a runner until a short while ago! His total distance when he completes the challenge would take him from the UK to Sydney, Australia. Ben is doing this challenge to raise awareness and funding for two anti-bullying charities, Kidscape and Stonewall. Ben’s own experiences of being bullied have spurred him to do this amazing challenge and he is a real inspiration for the children.

The children were excited to meet Ben and loved clapping and cheering this inspirational character on.  Our Young Ambassadors and some children from our athletics club, ran with him through the school grounds, before Ben carried on his run.

As Ben is fundraising for such an important cause  and his target is £250,000, we did a collection at the beginning and end of the school day and will be forwarding the money raised on to the 401 Challenge Team.

The children were all in awe of what Ben is doing so it was a day they will remember. We collected £158 on Wednesday and our Y3/4 pupils are also donating the £86 they raised from the ticket sales of their Easter performance

Well done Ben on all you have achieved so far and we wish you the best of luck with the rest of your challenge.

Click here to find out more about the 401 Challenge.

Click here to see the photo album.