Awards Evening 2015
Posted: November 23rd, 2015
The evening of Thursday 19th November saw another successful Awards Evening. This year, we were honoured to have Councillor Mr Bert Proctor as our guest speaker and he was amazed at the number of pupils, both past and present, who received awards for a range of achievements.
A total of 66 pupils received an award for 100% attendance during the last academic year, with Thomas Jones and Zack Coffey receiving a special award for 100% attendance throughout their entire school career, from 2010 – 2015: an outstanding achievement by anyone’s standards.
Awards were also distributed within each subject area, and were issued to those pupils who went above and beyond during the last academic year. Such awards are sponsored by a range of past staff, governors, and local businesses, which supports our community ethos.
During the evening, the distribution of trophies was interspersed with various musical items, all performed by our current pupils. We’re sure that everyone who attended will agree that the performances were of a very high standard and we would like to thank all pupils involved for helping to contribute to the evening’s enjoyment.
GCSE certificates were distributed to our Year 11 of 2014 – 2015: it was great to see so many of them back on the stage, eager to receive their well-deserved certificates. Their walk across the school stage for one last time made for quite an emotional evening but, of course, the invitation is there for them to return in several years as our Awards Evening guest speaker!
Achievements in various sporting events are also recognised, as are contributions to music, enterprise, school life and service to the community. Councillor Bert Proctor was delighted to see the Thorley Platt Award for service to the community being given to William Bailey (a current Year 10 pupil) and Rebecca Minton (a current Year 11 pupil) because he felt it helped to support the real community spirit present in our school. Councillor Proctor, himself an ex-pupil from the school, went on to discuss the immense changes that have taken place in the school since he left sixty years ago. Of course, he mentioned the enormous improvements to the fabric of the building but he felt one of the most significant changes was that feeling of belonging.
And that feeling of belonging was certainly apparent on the evening. The school hall was packed to the rafters with pupils (past and present), parents, governors, staff (past and present), representatives from local businesses and representatives from the Audley LAP (Local Action Partnership) all celebrating the tremendous success of our pupils.
We were also honoured to have present Anna Halliday, the Commissioner for Education and Wellbeing for Staffordshire, as a member of the Platform Party but, during her speech, she stated that the honour was all hers: she really did feel privileged to be part of our celebrations.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved for making this evening such a special occasion and in particular we’d like to thank our pupils for giving us a reason to celebrate!
