Harrogate Grammar Schools Annual Celebration of Achievement Awards Evening 2016

The Celebration of Achievement evening at the spectacular Royal Hall was a great success and provided a wonderful opportunity for Harrogate Grammar School students to demonstrate their many talents and achievements.

On this very special night a whole range of achievements are recognised; academic, sporting, musical and for many, that most important ingredient of any success, effort. It was wonderful to see so many young people come up on stage to proudly receive their award that are the pinnacle of the awards system in school.

It was especially pleasing to see so many Year 11 prize winners this year, following on from such fantastic GCSE results in August 2016. We were also privileged to listen to the senior choir and Jazz band perform, along with the Frenetic Theatre company.

On the night Colonel Martin Dransfield of the New Zealand Defence Force and Great Nephew of former student, Donald Bell VC was welcomed as the guest speaker, having travelled all the way from New Zealand to be at the event.

This was a was a very special way of rounding off a variety of events which have taken place this year, to commemorate the centenary year of Donald Bell’s act of bravery during the Battle of the Somme.

Following an interesting and though provoking speech, Colonel Dransfield was able to personally present the two Donald Bell awards; A signed, commemorative, Bradford Park Avenue football shirt, the team Donald Bell himself played for as a professional footballer, was presented to Joe Dorkings, as best school footballer.

The Donald Bell award for commitment was then presented to Amy Wotherspoon. The evening closed with incredibly inspiring speeches by Head Boy, Will Giddings and Head Girl, Eloise Hudson.

Harrogate Grammar School has had a very successful year, in terms of examination outcomes, GCSE results were outstanding and the school maintained the excellent outcomes in A Level results. The governments new school performance measure, Progress 8, put HGS in the top 5% of schools nationally. These students have now left ready to take on the challenges of the world but also ready to seize the many opportunities that are out there for the taking.

However, it isn’t just about exam results at Harrogate Grammar School. On Tuesday, students hosted our most popular annual festive coffee morning to date with over 100 senior citizens from our community attending. The warmth, grace and understanding shown by Harrogate Grammar School students was wonderful and was certainly greatly appreciated by their guests.

The school’s REACH values of Respect, Excellence, Adventure, Commitment and Honesty were well represented in a piece of the theatre in the evening but are shown on a day to day basis by our students in and around school. Whilst we proudly celebrate the brilliant academic achievements of our students we also recognise the positive contribution to the life of the school that students of all abilities are able to make and this is what the Celebration of achievement evening is all about.

Headteacher Richard Sheriff said: It has been a fantastic year and I am very proud of the achievements of all our students and so grateful to our talented and committed staff who make it all happen.