Autumn Celebration 2022
Our annual Autumn Celebration Evening took place on Thursday 29th September 2022. It was wonderful to see the main hall at St Edward’s not only filled with the familiar faces of students who have now become 6th form students along with their families, but also of former students who were fondly welcomed back after embarking on new ventures after the summer break.
This evening encompasses exactly what its title suggests, a celebration, which marks the successes of two poignant year groups in their educational and developmental journey through St Edward’s. The evening began with a welcome from Headteacher, Mr Antram, who explained the concept of our Legacy Chapel and how at St Edward’s, we strive to fully appreciate each student’s achievements and document particular successes to inspire future generations at the school to go on and accomplish in their own unique way.
We took the opportunity to look back over the students’ journey with Directors of Learning, Mr Kemish (Year 11) and Mr Elliott (Sixth Form), who shared memories of the students’ early days at St Edward’s five or seven years ago with ‘generous’ blazers that reached over their hands and we looked back on how far they had come and how they had grown, not just physically but as people, in that journey. These two cohorts, in particular, have seen some extraordinary times and both Mr Kemish and Mr Elliott, acknowledged the pride they felt in the students who had come through this adversity with such success.
Assistant Headteacher, Mr Farrow introduced our unique Virtues Awards and ignited thoughts about how we ourselves would like to be remembered, as we in turn reflect on the life of our late Queen, and her legacy. He recounted the story of the Queen dedicating herself at the age of just 21 ‘to serve her country and people’ and this is exactly what she had achieved. In the weeks following her death, the whole nation has spoken about her sense of duty and service – she will forever be remembered by the ‘service’ she gave, which is exactly what she had set out to do at 21. Mr Farrow asked us all to reflect on how we would like to be remembered and for what.
As the evening progressed, Deputy Headteacher, Mr Barnett introduced the Progress and Attainment awards which are presented to students who have attained the highest grades at A Level and GCSE and also to the students who have made the most academic progress across the two year groups.
The Attainment Awards were the first to be presented to the following Year 11 students; Chloe – 4 grade 9s and 3 grade 8s, Theo – 4 grade 9s and 5 grade 8s and Yasmin – 4 grade 9s and 3 grade 8s. Each student received a personalised glass engraved award and a certificate.
The following Year 13 students were then awarded with Attainment Awards for their outstanding A Level results; Abigail– A*A*A*A, Madeleine – A* A* A* A*, Max – A* A* A* and Juliet– A* A* Dist*
The Progress Awards sponsored by Bournemouth University were presented to those students who showed the most academic progress. Neha, Grace and Anna Rose received the Year 11 awards and Mikail, Joshua and Richard were recipients of the Year 13 awards, all of whom received a personalised glass engraved trophy and certificate.
We were inspired by our guest speaker, double Olympian and commonwealth medallist, Liz Yelling, who spoke about how as a teacher in her twenties, she decided to pursue her passion for running in her spare time. Liz would set herself goals and as soon as she achieved them, she would set her next goal and push herself to keep moving up the ladder, rung by rung, which gave her the momentum to keep going and eventually become a full time world class marathon runner who competed in the Olympics in 2004 and 2008 and also the Commonwealth Games in 2006. Liz really was an inspirational story in the pursuit of self motivation and self discipline and achieving your dreams.
Following on from our guest speaker’s thought-provoking talk, we presented our deserving Year 11 and 13 students with the prestigious Virtue Awards. At St Edward’s, we believe that young people deserve to be equipped for life with the best education, together with values that enable them to navigate future opportunities. The Virtues Awards seek to acknowledge those students who we feel have epitomised the character virtues of Wisdom, Humanity, Courage, Spirituality and Discipline.
The stunning glass awards, which we display in the school’s trophy cabinet, were presented to our students by our guest, Liz Yelling.
Wisdom – Isla and Clelia
Discipline – Chloe and Isobel
Courage – Grace and Abbie
Humanity sponsored by HSBC – Max and Heidi
Spirituality sponsored by St Mary’s Church – Joshua and Madeleine
Each student received their own personalised award and certificate. Each of the award’s recipients also has their name inscribed on the honour boards within our Legacy Chapel at the school, a reminder for generations to come of the values of St Edward’s School and of what can be achieved by each student, if they commit to realising their unique potential.
Assistant Headteacher, Mr Henry introduced us to the Stephen Ford Memorial Award which was gifted to us in memory of a former student, Stephen Ford, who fulfilled his personal ambition of joining the Royal Navy at the age of 16. Stephen very sadly lost his life just days after his 18th birthday aboard HMS Ardent in the Falklands War in 1982.
This award was donated to the school by Stephen’s father and is presented to those students who we recognise to have overcome adversity. This year Mikail was awarded the trophy. Mikail joined St Edward’s at the start of Year 12 and has worked tirelessly over the last two years to make sure that he achieves as well as he possibly can. He is a true testament to hard work and motivation leading to success.
The evening closed with a prayer and guests and their families were left to mingle and celebrate over drinks. A wonderful evening of celebration! Thank you to all who attended and congratulations once again to all our award winners and thanks to our sponsors HSBC UK, Bournemouth University and St Mary’s Church, Poole.
