Appleby Grammar School held its first prize-giving evening since the COVID-19 outbreak and welcomed a special guest, two-times Olympic gold medal-winning track cyclist Phil Hindes MBE.
Students from all year groups attended to collect form, subject and endowed prizes, as well as GCSE and A-level certificates.
Opening remarks were given by the chair of governors, Jane Taylor, who commented on the resilience of all members of the school community during the pandemic and periods of lockdown.
Mrs Taylor thanked school staff for going above and beyond to ensure students had the best education possible in never-before-seen circumstances and for continuing their efforts post-pandemic, leading to an Ofsted judgement of “good” in April, 2022.
Student presentations followed and Brogan, Flo, Troy and Maisie gave their thoughts on the recent Year 7 residential to Lockerbie Manor.
Ethan, Holly and Dan spoke about their visit to Iceland, and the presentations were completed by James, who spoke about the Czech Republic exchange programme.
Headteacher Ms Sargent talked about the school’s role in helping each student find their passions and their talents, reflecting on just some of the many highlights of last year.
It was then time for the guest speaker and this year the school was extremely proud to welcome Phil Hindes MBE to talk about his career and the build-up to his successes at both the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympics.
Phil spoke of the training and dedication it took to reach the top of his sport as well as the honour of riding alongside team-mates Sir Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny.
The final section of the evening was the presentation of awards by Phil to all students who were able to attend.
The school thanked Phil for giving his time to visit and for giving such an inspirational talk.
