Cliff Park Ormiston Academy's Olivia Lovatt admitted all the hard work was worth it after her extracurricular efforts were rewarded by Paralympic gold medallist Jessica-Jane Applegate.

Lovatt was one of the star attractions at Norwich's Dunston Hall as more than 100 young legacy leaders took centre stage to celebrate and showcase their fantastic work on the Get Set to Make a Change programme since October last year.

The programme, funded by the Big Lottery Fund, saw youngsters keep the spirit of London 2012 alive with 15-year-old Lovatt and Cliff Park Ormiston Academy certainly doing that – fulfilling three different pledges to help younger children in society.

Their hard work didn't go unnoticed with Great Yarmouth swimmer Applegate, who won S14 200m freestyle gold at London 2012, as well as three-time Olympic javelin thrower Goldie Sayers, handing Cliff Park Ormiston Academy an award to commemorate the youngsters' efforts.

And after coming up close and personal with two stars of British sport, Lovatt was left pinching herself as to just how far the programme had taken her and her classmates.

'It was really good to come to the celebration event and great to meet Jessica-Jane and Goldie and see what they have done at the highest level,' said Lovatt.

'We decided on three different pledges after going to the Get Set to Make a Change day last year.

'One was helping out with a school games event, we also did some work with a disabled school and took them rock climbing and then we worked with young children to help them deal with social problems.

'They all went well and we completed everything. We all got on well and developed good teamwork skills.

'We have already got more people at the school who have drawn inspiration from us and are going to take over the project next year.'

Cliff Park Ormiston Academy were not the only ones who saw their work recognised with students from Flegg High School also rewarded on the night.

Ellie Brown was one of the students heavily involved in their pledge to make sport more fun for the younger generation and the 15-year-old admitted it had been a great success all round.

'We did a multi-sports day for 170 year five and year six pupils and then we also did fitness sessions like aerobic exercise for year seven and eight pupils. It was fun and everyone enjoyed it,' she said. 'Coming to the celebration day has been good as we've got to meet other people and share ideas.It's been a good inspiration.

'We are in year 11 so we can't carry it on this year but there are people in year ten who are going to carry on the legacy.'