Herts School benefits from EllaBeInspire Disability Inclusion Gold Package visit

Former GB Wheelchair basketball athlete, disabled fitness instructor, PT and media researcher, Ella Beaumont has recently expanded her offer and ventured into providing Disability Inclusion packages for Schools which include motivational assemblies, staff training, practical workshops and Q&A’s under her new EllaBeeInspire brand.

Following the success of her co-hosting our opening address and having a marketplace stand at the recent Hertfordshire Primary Schools Sport and PE conference; Ella has garnered lots of initial interest from Hertfordshire Schools. She has subsequently been commissioned to deliver a select package of these services as funded by the No Limits 2026 Campaign. These will be issued to a select few schools, as identified by our Inclusion Leads who keenly engage with or contribute to the Inclusion 2028 programme over the course of the year.

Beech Hyde School in Wheathampstead recently benefitted from a No Limits funded gold package visit and were very excited to host Ella for a full day on the 2nd February. Headteacher Karen Thomas recalls her reflections and how it has inspired the whole school.

“Ella spoke to the whole school about her journey and the challenges of living in a wheelchair. She encouraged the children to think about all the things that might be more difficult for people with physical disabilities and opened the floor to any questions they might have about how she managed everyday things like getting out of bed and cooking.

You could tell that the children were nervous about asking things that they felt might be inappropriate, but Ella made them all feel at ease and there were some great questions that started to break down barriers to understanding. The most important lesson we all learned was not be afraid to reach out and ask people with disabilities if they need help and aim to be fully inclusive in everything we do.

We were all inspired by hearing about Ella’s journey to sporting success and very impressed by her medals. It reminded us to never give up on our dreams and goals; with hard work we can make it!

Each class got to try out wheelchair basketball which was a lot of fun! Ella showed us some tricks that wheelchair ball athletes use to pick up the ball and how the games are played. The children all realised how hard it might be to play sport in a wheelchair but also loved trying it out and scoring goals.”

A Year 3 pupil said:

“It made me realise that even if I’m finding things hard, I mustn’t give up….. Ella didn’t though it was harder for her to play than her friends.”

A Year 4 pupil

“I never really thought about how people in wheelchairs do all the everyday things we take for granted.”

Year 6 sports ambassadors were very excited and said:

“We really want Ella to come back and to have a proper game of wheelchair basketball!”

“By the end of the day, we were so inspired by being with Ella and hearing about everything she had achieved. It encouraged us to think more carefully about how we include everyone in all our sporting endeavours and about making sure we really 'see' people with disabilities in our community.

Sports Coach Paul Drake recalled:

“It's been a fabulous day and has really encouraged us to think outside the box and make sure we introduce the children to a wide variety of inclusive sports”

It's been so refreshing how open Ella was to the children's questions about disability which in turn has increased their understanding and awareness of what it means to live with disability and how you should never let any additional need hold you back.

We asked the children to sum up the day in one word:

“Fun”, “Interesting”, “Inspiring”, “Thought-Provoking”

Thank you, Ella, for visiting us, teaching us and inspiring us"

If you would like to enquire about Ella’s EllaBeeInspire services and self-fund for a corporate day or fund from your Schools PE & Sports Premium, please find the breakdown of the full offer and costs here:

EllaBeeInspire Disability Inclusion Packages for Schools