PUPILS at a Bradford school have been cheering on a former student during her first appearance at the Rio Paralympics.

Coral Batey, 21, today took to the court to represent Great Britain in wheelchair rugby, one of the most high impact and exciting sports of the games.

Team GB were narrowly beaten by reigning Paralympic champions Australia in their first game by 53 to 51 but the team, including Coral, put on a valiant, hard hitting display for the packed crowds.

And watching the game live from Rio’s Carioca Arena were pupils and staff from her former school, Bradford Academy.

Staff have installed a big screen in the school so pupils can watch Coral’s performance in Team GB’s matches, which run for the rest of the week. And they will be hoping the team goes all the way to Sunday’s finals.

Coral, who was born in Bradford and attended the school from 2006 to 2013, is not only the youngest member of the GB squad, she is also the only female player on the team.

During yesterday’s match a number of disabled pupils at the Bowling school watched and cheered Coral and her teammates on, waving specially made flags and a banner featuring images of the former pupil in action. Tomorrow’s match against Canada will be shown to even more pupils at the school.

It is her first Olympics, although she has represented her country in the sport for two and a half years.

Her first international match came in January 2014, at the Tri-Nations tournament in Toronto, and Coral went on to represent GB at the Canada Cup and the 2014 World Championships.

Staff at the school said Coral had always been independent and eager to compete.

Susan Carroll, head of the dedicated specialist provision at the school, said: “We’re all really excited to be seeing her competing in Rio. We’ll be watching every one of her matches in the school, and a lot of children are going to be watching the match tomorrow morning.

“Coral was always very determined, very independent.”

Dave Howarth, who was head of PE while Coral was at the school, said: “She was always sporty, she was always involved in doing as much as she could. While she was here she went to Bradford Bulls and got involved in wheelchair rugby through them.”

While at Bradford Academy the school raised enough money to buy her a wheelchair for wheelchair basketball, another sport she is heavily involved in.

Mr Howarth added: “When she was in sixth form she was starting to get more recognised for her sporting achievements, but she was very humble, she didn’t try and be big headed about her success.

“We’d ask what she’d got up to over the weekend and she’d tell us how she did, she never came in boasting about it.

“It is very much a male dominated sport but she comes out and gives it just as good as the men. We’re all very proud of her.”

Mrs Carroll added: “We’re hoping by showing these matches it will inspire other children. We do paralympic sports events here four times a year that brings all the pupils together. We always try to inspire our disabled pupils to take part in sports.”