We were delighted to host our annual Awards and Pastoral Celebration Evening recently. The evening provides an opportunity to celebrate academic and personal achievements of our students for the year 2017-18. College Awards were given to recognise our SPIRIT values (Self-Regulation, Participation, Inspired, Resilience, Integrity and Tolerance); key qualities that Alsager School encourages in all its students. Academic and Subject Awards were also awarded to students from years 7–9. These subject winners had being nominated out of 700 plus students. Additionally, awards were given to our year 13 leavers.
Mr Middlebrook congratulated all the award winners, encouraging them to be proud of their achievements. He explained to the audience just how successful 2017-2018 had been for us and how as a school we had much to celebrate. The examination results of the cohorts of 2018 were fantastic, especially given all the changes at both GCSE and A level. A pass in GCSE English was achieved by 91% of the cohort and Maths 82%. Mr Middlebrook explained that the school’s GCSE performance measure for 2018, called Progress 8 had just been released this week. Our score of +0.26 meant that the school was adding an average of 1/3 of a grade to each student’s GCSE results and this would put us in the top 25% of all schools in the country!
Guests of honour were Lindsay Purcell, Governor, and former student and colleague Imogen Gregory. This year we were delighted to once again present the ‘Katy Wright Science Bursary’ which has been kindly donated by the Wright family in memory of their daughter Katy, a former student and subsequent teacher who unfortunately died from a rare form of cancer at an early age. In her memory, her parents wanted to recognise the achievement of an outstanding scientist from the Sixth Form, not only this year but also for years to come, hoping that it will inspire young people to pursue a career in Science or Maths. The award was presented to Katie Hibbitt now studying Medicine at Cambridge University.
As well as subject awards, there were Progress and Governor’s Awards, which recognised students who have achieved highly, shown an ability to juggle personal commitments with academic ones or who through sheer hard work and determination have beaten the odds to succeed. The Governor’s Award winner was Elena Steiner for outstanding academic achievement. Elena is studying Mathematics at the University of Warwick. The Headteacher’s award for outstanding progress was given to Nathaniel Heath who worked hard to achieve excellent results and is studying Chemical Engineering at Lancaster University. The Director of Sixth Form Awards for outstanding contribution to the school went to Amy Wyatt who is studying Maths at Lancaster.
Mr Middlebrook said: “Evenings such as this are a real highlight of the school year. It is always a pleasure and a privilege to celebrate our students’ achievements with their families. I would like to congratulate all our award winners and wish them every success for the future”.
