What you see as your weakness today could be your career tomorrow. That was the message Dr Elizabeth Shaffer brought to William Ford this week, in a visit that was also a first for our school.

Dr Shaffer is an occupational therapist, neurodevelopment expert and international speaker. She travelled from Belgium to spend the morning with our children, having originally grown up in the USA, making her the first international visitor William Ford has welcomed.

She told the children about her own childhood, growing up in poverty and starting school as a shy, quiet kindergarten pupil who could barely find the words to speak in front of others. From there, her path led somewhere she could never have imagined as that child: speaking in front of audiences of up to 500,000 people around the world.

The children also learned about occupational therapy itself, a career many had never come across before, and what it means to support people's development in such a hands-on, human way.

But it was Dr Shaffer's central message that stayed with everyone in the room. The very thing you might see as a weakness, a fear or an insecurity right now could one day become the thing that allows you to help and empower others. For our children, many of whom face their own challenges, that is a message worth holding onto.

We are hugely grateful to Dr Shaffer for travelling so far to share her story with us.