STAFF and pupils at a special school near Devizes are celebrating after former pupil Aaron Moores was made an MBE in the new year honours list.

Aaron, 22, who claimed gold in the pool at the Paralympics in Rio, was a pupil at Rowdeford School in Rowde from 2004 to 2009. This week headteacher Ingrid Sidmouth said: "Aaron is an excellent role model for young people with learning disabilities and we are so delighted that he has been awarded an MBE following his tremendous achievements at the Olympics in Rio."

Aaron, who grew up in Trowbridge, learnt to swim at junior school and continued his lessons at Rowdeford in Years 7 and 9. Mrs Sidmouth said: "He was really dedicated and he swam every day before school in Trowbridge. When he was in the upper school he was selected to train every weekend at Bath University.

"Aaron was a very modest pupil who had a good sense of humour. He really loved his swimming but he was a talented all-round sportsman, a very good team player and he always played fairly.

"Aaron applied the same determination to try to overcome his significant difficulties with basic skills and he worked really hard to achieve his goals. He was polite, kind and caring towards others and he always encouraged others, which is a quality that he demonstrated at the Olympics when he was the first to congratulate team mates."

But just weeks before news of his MBE was made public he revealed that he had nearly given up on sport before the Rio games as he couldn't afford to pursue a career in the pool.

But after his gold in the SB14 breaststroke he was put on the British Para-Swimming’s top level of funding, the Podium programme and is now training for the World Championships in Budapest.

He said: "“Everyone has been really supportive, my nan (Maria Hanko) has been sorting me out because there was one point where I was on the edge of quitting because I couldn’t afford it, but she didn’t want me to quit."