The school held its Annual Prize Giving 2024/2025 at the Winston Churchill Hall on Thursday June 25th.
The event began with the Head Students, Tiffany Stringer and Shiv Mookerjee, asking everyone to stand for the entrance of the evening’s Guest of Honour, The Rt Rev’d Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy, Bishop of Willesden. They then welcomed everyone present who had come to celebrate the achievement, effort and hard work of all the students who were about to receive their well-deserved prizes.
The Head Students
The Interim Headteacher, Mr Malcom Britton, also welcomed everyone and praised the Head Students for winning the latest vote. They certainly looked confident in their position and spoke very articulately. Mr Britton also took the opportunity to praise the hard work and dedication of the school’s chaplain, Reverend Susy Dand, and the work of the chaplaincy which was met with applause. He did also manage to make his audience laugh when he declared that he “became a teacher to help people survive the education system!” He spoke of the numerous trips and sporting achievements that had taken place during the past school year. As well as working towards exams, he spoke of the journey the students were encouraged to take on board,
Charlie Morsley, Zoe Taylor & Nedum Nkenke
which was to become good young adults and to contribute to creating a school and community they all want to be part of. There then followed a delightful musical item by two sisters Sophie and Lucy Chan.
Daniel Bisland
The main part of the evening was the Presentation of Prizes by the Guest of Honour. Before each prize was presented staff members from each Faculty shared citations of each individual student which made it personal to the student receiving the prize. Every prize winner deserves congratulations and should be proud of their achievement. However, there were some who stood out and deserve a special mention. They are: Sophie Byrne, Year 11 and Zoe Smaggasgale Year 13 who both won two prizes and Erin Creedon Year 13 who has a place at Oxford University to study Geography. The Inclusion Prize was awarded to Nedum Nkenke Year 11 who will be studying Performing Arts at the Hayes Campus of Uxbridge College. Although academic performance is important to every school, Bishop Ramsey also awards Special Prizes for students’ contribution to the school and the wider community. These include the Lynsey Jackson Prize won by Daniel Bisland, Year 13 and the Barnabas Prize for Encouragement KS3 awarded to Charlie Morsley, Year 8. Also pictured is Zoe Taylor, Year 11 who won the prize for Sociology KS4. At the end of the Presentation the audience was entertained by another accomplished musical item by Rebekah Stephen and Luca Bosic.
Rt Rev’d Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy
Next it was the turn of Rt Rev’d Lusa Nsenga-Ngoy to address the audience. He began by saying that it was a joy and privilege to be present on the occasion. He spoke mainly to the students as was appropriate. It was now a time for reflection and encouraged the young people not to ask just what they have accomplished but what they are becoming. They are lucky to have teachers, parents/carers to guide them to shape their minds and hearts and to build resilience. Life is not just exams but full of love, hope and dignity. He then told a story which resonated with everyone present. It was about a group of large elephants whose legs were tied with a strong rope so they could not escape. A man asked the trainer “Why do they not break free? The reply was they were tied up when they were very young and they feel now, even though they are big and strong, they would not be able to. The Bishop told his audience that the rope is not stronger than you.” He encouraged young people not to be defined by failure, they are stronger than they know and should learn from it. Translate failure into a new opportunity; you are stronger than you know. Let the light shine. It was a very uplifting speech which gave everyone food for thought which received much deserved resounding applause.
The Head Students warmly thanked the Bishop and presented him with a gift. The evening ended with a hymn and a blessing from Rev Susy Dand.*
Comments are closed.