Somewhere in between dodging the paparazzi and prancing about the Caribbean in a bikini, Katie Price did a hard day's work.

That may be harsh - it can be exhausting posing for the cameras and appearing on television reality shows - but the queen of celebrity had to endure a different kind of tiredness after her latest challenge in deepest rural Sussex.

Using only the help of her old Brighton schoolfriends, including one she once turned down for a date, Katie, aka Jordan, was attempting to renovate a run-down swimming pool and build disabled facilities for the hundreds of children who attend the outdoor activity centre at Hindleap Warren, near Forest Row.

Ignoring the damage it could do to her manicured fingernails, the model was soon tiling, painting and hammering like a female version of DIY king Handy Andy.

Katie, from Maresfield, had been set the challenge by fellow East Sussex celebrity Jamie Theakston on his Saturday tea-time show With A Little Help From My Friends - and she was given five days, and no money, to do it.

The 26-year-old, whose son Harvey is congenitally blind, threw herself into the project, knowing from experience how important play is to children with disabilities and how vital the stimulation provided by a sensory room - one of her tasks - is to a blind or deaf child's development.

Speaking as she took a rest from her challenge, she said: "What I'm looking forward to most when we've completed everything, which I hope we do, is seeing all those kids' faces light up, all the smiles.

"They've been waiting for a swimming pool and the sensory room is so important - and they haven't got one here. It's not fair for people who have wheelchairs - they can't go on the obstacle course. So that's what we're going to achieve - but it's not yet done.

"Before I had Harvey, I was aware of kids with disabilities but when you've actually got a child yourself you learn more about other kids and what they've got.

"It's important to me to get it right, especially the sensory room because I take Harvey to one every week and I know the kids are going to love it."

But the challenge seemed daunting when she was shown the scale of the project. Even drawing on the help of her old schoolmates - and her fianc Peter Andre - did not guarantee the work would be finished on time.

Viewers can judge for themselves how she got on by tuning in to this Saturday's programme.

They can also hear a series of revelations from former classmates who knew the young Katie when she attended Patcham High School and Blatchington Mill in Hove.

Ten years ago she left school with a few GCSEs, not much of an idea about what she wanted to do - bar modelling - and a love of swimming and horses.

The programme gives her old friends the chance to reveal what she was really like at school, from the jokes she used to play on the school bus to the boys who managed to steal kisses from her, and to say whether celebrity and motherhood has changed her.

Among those featured are her best friend since she was 11, Clare Atkinson, who recalls how Katie had always set her sights on modelling.

More surprising is the appearance of Tom Sweetman, who Katie once turned down for a date and whom she hasn't seen for more than ten years.

Anna Brookes, Katie's form and PE teacher, also appears and recalls a "popular and lovely" girl with a strong competitive streak.

That competitiveness was a much-needed bonus when Katie tackled her challenge.

First came the swimming pool, one of the most popular aspects of the centre for the thousands of children who visit each year.

It needed new changing rooms, draining, cleaning, refilling and fitting with a disabled hoist chair, while the changing area needed repainting and retiling. If nothing was done, it would have to be closed.

Other work included turning a room used to house the centre's canoes into a sensory room complete with bubble tubes, fibre optics, slide projector and a vibrating soundbox for deaf children to "hear" music through.

Her final challenge was to build an outdoor obstacle course for disabled children, which would give them the chance to crawl through tunnels, have fun and get filthy like all children do.

But not only did the challenge turn out to be physically demanding, it meant the woman used to looking out for herself had to learn to be a team player.

She said: "I haven't bitten anyone's head off yet! They could be at work but they've all come here. It's all for the kids and you've all got to have a laugh and just enjoy it.

"In a nice way I want to keep pushing people to do it but I don't want to boss them around.

"As long as I'm a bit firm then do it in a nice joking way. I don't want them to think I'm a big, bad boss because I'm not like that.

"Some of us have never done any of it before - we haven't put tiles together, we haven't done the flooring. But out of this I've learnt three skills. I know how to lay a carpet, I've learnt to put up a wall, I've done some tiling and painting.

"I'll be a good DIY girl now - I might start doing up my own house!"

Di Churchill, manager of Activenture, the charity which runs the centre, said: "We are absolutely delighted.

"It has been superb and all the friends she brought in worked extremely hard, through the day and the night.

"She brought Harvey with her to meet the children. And Peter was great.

"It's wonderful not only to have the work done for us and paid for by local firms but for the children to be involved in the filming. It showed them a different side to television."

Singer Peter took time out from promoting his new single to lend his partner a hand. She was delighted with his support - if less appreciative of his DIY expertise.

She said: "I need a man who knows how to do a bit of DIY because he's useless! I bet if I ask him later 'Pete do you know how to put a plug together?' I bet he couldn't.

"Mind you, he did the tiling yesterday and he wasn't too bad at that. But then it's not his job, is it? His job's being a singer so at least he's trying.

"I stuck him on the obstacle course to get a bit dirty, give him the rugged look - it's my time to boss him around and I love it!"

With A Little Help From My Friends will be shown on ITV1 on Saturday at 5.55pm.