COMMONWEAL School welcomed Great Britain wheelchair basketball star Judith Hamer earlier this week.

The Paralympic star was on hand to provide inspiration to young people ahead of an upcoming wheelchair basketball satellite club forming at the school.

Judith was a key player on the GB women’s wheelchair basketball team and proved one of their standout performers at the London 2012 Paralympics as the team finished 7th.

Swindon Shock Basketball club have worked with Commonweal to set up the club.

Satellite clubs are outposts of existing community sports clubs based on school or college sites to ensure that more young people have the opportunity to continue to take part in sport as they transition from school to community sport.

Wiltshire and Swindon Sport, the county sports partnership, help fund satellite clubs by paying expenses for coaches and equipment, such as the 12 specialist wheelchairs that the club use on a regular basis to enable greater inclusion.

Hamer said: “I’ve really enjoyed attending the satellite club sessions at Commonweal School. It has been great talking to the young people in attendance about my own experiences.

“Satellite clubs are a fantastic way of helping to get more young people playing sport, so I fully support them.

“I believe that as a Sport England Sporting Champion, I can inspire everyone in attendance to raise their own aspirations of what they can achieve and motivate them to be the very best versions of themselves that they can be.”

Ben Humphrey, who organises the club’s link between Swindon Shock and the local schools, said: “We initially aimed the sessions at 17 to 19 year-olds but found that their fundamental movement and basic motor skills were surprisingly low, and so we decided to start working with younger children from primary school age.

“The young people really enjoy attending the sessions and having a GB athlete come along, join in, and talk to them about her experiences has been truly inspirational and given them all a big boost to show them what they could achieve in sport.”