Former pupils of Chetwynde School were encouraged to ‘take every opportunity’ at the annual prizegiving.

Guest speaker Liam Edgley, a past student of the Rating Lane school, congratulated the Year 11s who left in the summer on their GCSE success.

“You will all go on to incredible things,” he said. “Six years ago when I got my GCSEs I didn’t quite realise the significance of this milestone.”

Liam, a Trustee of South Cumbria Multi-Academy Trust, is now doing a degree apprenticeship at BAE Systems but said it was not originally his first plan.

“The exciting part is ahead. You will learn to drive, start work or college. Take this time to celebrate what you’ve achieved and how awesome your achievement is but don’t be afraid of change.”

He presented the awards to the students in front of staff, family and friends.

Top academic student was Hargun Ghuman who secured eight grade 9s and two grade 8s in her GCSEs. She also received three subject awards and is now studying A Levels with a view to studying medicine at university.

“It feels unreal,” she said. “I had such a good time here and it feels lovely to get awards from my teachers. It’s such a small school and I’ve made lifelong friendships.”

Henry Burns received the Holmes Prize for best academic improvement and the geography subject prize while twins Tilly and Maya Greenall, who each achieved a host of grade 8s and 9s among their 10 GCSEs, were also celebrating.

Tilly achieved and scooped the Governor’s Cup for her contribution to school and achievement across the board as well as the subject prize for physics. Maya won the Les Rigg Trophy for Outstanding Achievement in Sports, subject prize for chemistry and a form award for academic achievement.

Speaking to the students, Chetwynde Headteacher Steve Jefferson said the prizes were for hard work, effort and contribution to school as well as academic success.

“Be proud of all your successes. You have shown the school values of respect, responsibility, and resilience and you take those with you into your bright futures.”

A full list of winners is below:

Head of School’s Award for best results at GCSE		Hargun Ghuman
The Holmes Prize for best academic improvement		Henry Burns
The Governor’s Cup – Student of the Year	Contribution to the school/Head Girl/Achievement across the school	Tilly Greenall
The Simon Spencer Award for Current Affairs		Leo Kennedy
The Billingham Cup – Awarded for Perserverance		Hitanshi Manoharan
The Computer Science Award	Hard work and effort	Hargun Ghuman
The Les Rigg Trophy for Outstanding Achievement in Sports	Hard work and effort	Maya Greenall
The Martin Pears Trophy for Outstanding Achievement in Sport	Hard work and effort	Tilly Greenall
The GCSE English Prize	Hard work and effort	Liam McKinlay
The French Prize for GCSE	Hard work and effort	Hargun Ghuman
The Dr Glenn Morris Cup for GCSE Mathematics	Hard work and effort	Alyssa Robson
The BDAE Stem Award for GCSE	Hard work and effort	Lucy Dixon
The GSK Design & Technology Trophy	Hard work and effort	Emily-Mae Renney
The Cornelius Kelliher Trophy for GCSE Geography	Hard work and effort	Henry Burns
The Evans History Trophy for GCSE	Hard work and effort	Arrin Doyle
RS Prize for GCSE	Hard work and effort	Emily-Mae Renney
The Chas Kendall Trophy for Drama & Theatre Studies	Hard work and effort	Iona Harvey & Maddy Backhouse
The SJL Art Award	Hard work and effort	Imogen Stoker
The GCSE Biology Award	Hard work and effort	Aishvarya Ranjith Sheema
The GCSE Chemistry Award	Hard work and effort	Hargun Ghuman & Maya Greenall
The GCSE Physics Award	Hard work and effort	Tilly Greenall
The 11KEI Form Achievement Award	Academic achievement across all subjects	Maya Greenall
The 11ELA Form Achievement Award	Academic achievement across all subjects	Arrin Doyle
The 11SBE Form Achievement Award	Academic achievement across all subjects	Isabelle Farrish

Two pupils from Chetwynde School have visited Amsterdam as part of a national project to challenge prejudice.

Rocco Whitehouse and Ben Hanna, who are in Year 10 at the school on Rating Lane, were chosen from over 60 Anne Frank Trust Ambassadors who applied for the 16 places.

The 14-year-olds visited the Anne Frank House to learn about The Holocaust and Jewish people living in Amsterdam, reflecting on Anne’s life and their own identity, in a three-day trip paid for by the Anne Frank Trust.

Rocco said: “We went to Anne Frank’s house and saw how difficult it was to live in that tiny little house and thought about what life was like for them hiding away from the Germans.

“I hadn’t been to Amsterdam before and it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see first-hand that part of history.”

Ben said: “Going to Anne Frank’s house helped me to understand better how challenging her life was. We also met the other ambassadors and made friends.”

They penned their experiences into poetry and will share their thoughts with the wider school as part of a Holocaust Remembrance Assembly in January in conjunction with the Anne Frank Trust.

Both Rocco and Ben were appointed Anne Frank Trust Ambassadors around a year ago and have attended meetings and workshops with the charity looking at issues such as equality.

Assistant Director of Education for The Anne Frank Trust UK Naomi Griffiths-Littlechild said both Rocco and Ben had been selected in a highly-competitive process.

“They were selected from over 60 ambassadors who applied to come. They were a credit to themselves and the school engaging well with the trip and asking brilliant questions, it was a privilege to take them,” she said.

Teacher Michelle Doolan, of Chetwynde School, which is part of South Cumbria Multi-Academy Trust said everyone was very proud of the pair.

“It will have been an incredible experience for them and it’s brilliant to get such positive feedback.

“I think they have done well to be selected as not everybody that applied got a place.

“I am hoping we can encourage more students to become ambassadors this year when The Anne Frank Trust visit us again to do another workshop. So, more of our students can take up opportunities like this in the future.”

Pupils across Chetwynde School have been learning about Diwali this week.

From Kindy to Year 11 they have taken part in activities including making decorations and lanterns to mark the Hindu festival of lights.

As well as classroom learning about how the festival symbolises the spiritual victory of light over darkness in their belief, philosophy and ethics lessons, they have also listened to Indian music and danced to the Oscar-winning song Jai Ho by composer AR Rahman from the film Slumdog Millionaire.

Pupils grilled Barrow and Furness MP Simon Fell on hot topics when he visited two of our Trust schools during Parliament Week.

At Chetwynde School questions range from thorny issues such as the rise of inflation and cost of living to Brexit and Trident – alongside finding out his favourite biscuit!

Meanwhile at Ormsgill Primary School the newly-elected school parliament members challenged him on increasing pay for teachers and NHS workers as well as improving the shops in Barrow town centre and launching a campaign for playground improvements at Barrow Park.

A big thank you to Simon for visiting to help the children understand more about democracy, the role of an MP and provoking ideas from young people who are the future leaders of our community.

#ParliamentWeek

A Barrow teacher is backing national calls for more diversity of characters in children’s books.

Laura Reid, Assistant Head Teacher of Ormsgill Nursery and Primary School, says featuring disabled children in books can help break down barriers and reflects real life where one in ten children are disabled.

Disability equality charity Scope has today released a survey that found one in three disabled people had read a book where a disability was presented in a negative way.

It says two in three disabled people thought non-disabled people’s opinions about them would change if they were represented in books. Meanwhile, nearly half of all disabled people didn’t feel represented in books they read as a child.

Laura, the school’s lead for maths and ICT, set up the annual Ormsgill Book Festival to promote reading to primary pupils across Furness and said representation in books is vital.

“I believe that every child should be able to read a book and relate to the characters. I know when I read to our students, I ensure they all feel part of the story and that makes them totally engrossed in that book.

“Our primary school has a high number of SEN students. Many are autistic with some being non-verbal.

“A really important part about reading these stories to our students is, it gives me the opportunity to have age-appropriate discussions about diversity and disability. These reading sessions are so vital in helping students realise they’re an equal part of society, while developing their confidence at the same time.”

Laura is currently in the process of organising the next book festival at Ormsgill School, which is part of South Cumbria Multi-Academy Trust. She has secured award-winning children’s novelists Frank Cottrell Boyce and Jennifer Killick so far for the event on June 13^th.

“We would love to hear from any authors who were able to come and talk about how they ensure disabilities are reflected in their books,” she said.

Scope’s Research Panel conducted the survey with 359 disabled people and parents of disabled children.

Ruth Blazye, executive director of retail and communities at Scope, said outdated stereotypes to portray disabled people were damaging.

“It was disheartening to find too many disabled children and their parents said that they’d never seen anyone who looked or talked like them or, if they saw a disabled person, it was in a negative context,” she said. “This sends a troubling message that implies that disability is something to be feared. It can also lead to disabled children thinking they or their disability should be hidden away.”

The charity has launched a fundraising calendar for 2024 available from its website www.scope.org.uk

A group of nursery children are hoping to attract some more classmates by holding an Open Day this month.

Brambles Nursery at Vickerstown School will open its doors on Tuesday 7th November from 9am to 11am.

Mini visitors can explore the sand, water, outdoors, paint, construction, dinosaurs, cars, reading area and home corner while their parents look around the educational facilities and speak to staff.

Vickerstown School Headteacher David Holmes said the nursery has provision for the 15 and 30 hours free childcare allowance and full wrap-around care with breakfast and after school clubs.

“Brambles Nursery is open to all three and four year olds and is a fantastic place for little ones to start their education with seamless progression into the primary school. We provide a safe, happy and stimulating environment so children can become successful learners and confident individuals with enthusiastic characters. Our current nursery children would love to welcome some new faces and we welcome parents to bring their little ones along to experience what we have to offer.”

For more information call 01229 471350.