When Mahama met Cedar

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Cedar Mount students were thrilled to meet Taekwondo Silver medallist Mahama Cho when he visited Cedar Mount in November. Arriving with a TV crew and reporters, Mahama’s visit exceeded all of our expectations. He was warm, friendly and it was an honour to hear his story first-hand of how he emigrated from the Ivory Coast and settled in the UK as an 8-year-old boy in London. 

During a Q & A session with students, he discussed how as a child, he was subjected to racism and struggled with his confidence & self-esteem, which is why he is passionate about good mental health in young people. No questions were off-limits, and Mahama was keen to share his training regime and talk about the discipline and dedication it takes to perform at the highest level and how this feeds into Cedar Mount’s values of hard work, respect and aspiration!

Mahama was keen to meet our Student Leaders and sat in their weekly meeting. He discussed in more detail the setbacks he’d faced and the importance of believing in yourself, never giving up and aspiring to be the best you can be. Finally, Mahama put students through their paces and became PE teacher for the afternoon. It was an enjoyable and educational experience working with TV crews, having cameras in school for the day, and watching students and staff interviewed by Granada Reports. Please click on the links to watch the full interview which aired last week and see our students and Miss Bennett in action! https://bit.ly/3l3RVuu & https://bit.ly/3xhqtOW

As a parting gift, Miss Bennett presented Mahama with a SCHOLAR BADGE – imagine our surprise when we saw this posted on his Twitter account “I was given the scholar badge as the school massively believe in leadership and setting a good example. An honour to obtain this badge!”