Saint Felix children were privileged to meet Olympic and Commonwealth Gold Medallist Adrian Moorhouse when he visited the school just before half term. Adrian signed a large photograph of himself which hangs in the swimming pool foyer and many autographs as well as having  pictures taken with many of the younger members of the audience.

Adrian was at Saint Felix to give the inaugural Silcox Lecture, the first in a series of talks designed to bring in outside experience and to inspire and motivate youngsters here. His ‘lecture’ was more like a chat with friends in which he talked about everything from his earliest days as the friendless kid nobody picked for teams, to the discovery, aged 12, of his dream of Olympic glory  and the ups and downs of his battle to achieve it. He told the audience, of around 120 mostly swimmers, boarders, staff and parents, how he minutely planned his success, how he would work for hours to shave just one tenth of a second off a swimming turn and how he picked himself up after one newspaper said he should “do the world of swimming a favour and retire”. He went on to achieve his dreams of Number 1 world ranking, a breaststroke world record held for six years, and his coveted Olympic Gold Medal.

Adrian now runs his own highly successful business consultancy, employing more than 100 people and he was able to broaden his talk to cover motivational aspects of success in business and other life skills. He was a truly inspirational speaker and the audience left feeling they had been enriched as well as entertained. The children in particular clearly enjoyed Adrian’s relaxed, funny, self-deprecating style in which he involved the audience throughout, answering questions the swimmers fired at him and even playing games. One swimmer, who had largely lost interest in the sport, said afterwards he was seriously thinking of returning to the pool. Coach Sue Purchase said the children who went to the lecture had subsequently found a new vigour, energy and focus in their training.

Headmaster David Ward said later : “Adrian Moorhouse was brilliant. Everybody thoroughly enjoyed what he had to say. He was fascinating and inspiring and he was a great speaker to launch The Silcox Lecture Series”.