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Did anyone win awards while at school? - in other words, big ones for doing something good a school, and being on the school stage to receive it, or were you just being successfully nominated for such a thing?
It did happen to me - the story goes that during the autumn of 1989, there was this young lad who was in the Second Year (aka Year 8 in new money) at school who was sadly diagnosed with Leukemia and sadly passed away at the age of 12. It made it to the front page of the local newspaper with a quote from one of the Deputy Heads paying tribute, and the Family Announcements were full of tributes to him for over a week after he passed away. I was in the First Year (aka Year 7 at the time), and to be quite honest I had never heard of his name until the Headteacher had mentioned his passing to the whole school at a Friday morning assembly. The young lad was a "glass half full" person who took the little life he had left with ease and lived it as much as he could - apparently he wasn't bothered about his illness and that it was "business as usual" to him all the way. I suppose I felt a bit guilty that I had never heard of him until his death was announced, but to be fair, I was only at the school for a few weeks when the news happened.
Not long afterwards, an annual award was created at the school in the boy's memory, and it was to be announced each year at the Annual Awards Evening at school in the hall, usually on a Wednesday evening between 7.00 pm and 9.00 pm in October. Guess who won it in 1991? That's right - Yours Truly did! The downside was that although it was in the evening, we still had to come in our school uniforms (although as we were "ambassadors" to the school as well as achievers, one can obviously understand). I was invited to go onto the stage, shake hands with a now deceased councillor (who might have also been a Mayor at the time), and receive my award and then went back to my seat - my parents were in the "audience" as well, and I believe that a picture was taken of me accepting the award as well. The Award continued annually until the school's closure in 1995, and I personally commended all other winners of the award after myself. On a plaque not far from the school's main entrance, a list of awards and people's names were etched on the plaque, and my name was one of them.
Around a month later, I was in the middle of a lesson at school, and the Deputy Head had called me out of a lesson and into a corridor outside the classroom with some good news for me - he handed me an envelope in which as I opened it, there and then. Inside it, I saw it was a card in which I opened it and saw a personal greeting from the parents of the deceased boy, and a twenty pound note. I was surprised and amazed at this lovely greeting from his parents, and although I had never met them, I did write back to them thanking them for their kind gesture. I believe that I spent the money travelling to Leicester and doing some Christmas shopping at The Shires just before Christmas that year, mostly getting some blank videotapes to record some Christmas TV programmes on including the Channel 4 premier of Father Christmas and that year's showing of The Snowman.
I know that one year, someone (who I will not namedrop on here), had presented a couple of BBC TV programmes in the early 1990s and was actually part of the school alumni (she attended as a pupil in the mid 1970s, I think), and was invited to give out awards to incumbent pupils as well - I believe that she used to live locally as a result. I do think however, that a local councillor or Mayor would have been a lot better as a person would have that "tabloid" factor associated with TV presenters which don't really fit in with an educational environment such as a school, even outside school hours.
I never liked that school and I was mostly a "school refuser" during Years 10 and 11, but Year 9 wasn't too bad because of being nominated for the award, as well as the combination of teachers who were there at the time, and the news that I was to become an uncle - the "feelgood factor" was around me in 1991-1992, and I think that in that academic year, it was the tonic that I needed - recognition for who I am and the goodness that I did at the time. It's just a pity that from 1992-1993 onwards, things seemed to go on a downhill spiral in a number of ways.
Did any of you win awards at Awards Evenings at school and got invited to accept it on the school stage from some local dignitary? I suppose that it did feel like an honour back then even if one hated school...
It did happen to me - the story goes that during the autumn of 1989, there was this young lad who was in the Second Year (aka Year 8 in new money) at school who was sadly diagnosed with Leukemia and sadly passed away at the age of 12. It made it to the front page of the local newspaper with a quote from one of the Deputy Heads paying tribute, and the Family Announcements were full of tributes to him for over a week after he passed away. I was in the First Year (aka Year 7 at the time), and to be quite honest I had never heard of his name until the Headteacher had mentioned his passing to the whole school at a Friday morning assembly. The young lad was a "glass half full" person who took the little life he had left with ease and lived it as much as he could - apparently he wasn't bothered about his illness and that it was "business as usual" to him all the way. I suppose I felt a bit guilty that I had never heard of him until his death was announced, but to be fair, I was only at the school for a few weeks when the news happened.
Not long afterwards, an annual award was created at the school in the boy's memory, and it was to be announced each year at the Annual Awards Evening at school in the hall, usually on a Wednesday evening between 7.00 pm and 9.00 pm in October. Guess who won it in 1991? That's right - Yours Truly did! The downside was that although it was in the evening, we still had to come in our school uniforms (although as we were "ambassadors" to the school as well as achievers, one can obviously understand). I was invited to go onto the stage, shake hands with a now deceased councillor (who might have also been a Mayor at the time), and receive my award and then went back to my seat - my parents were in the "audience" as well, and I believe that a picture was taken of me accepting the award as well. The Award continued annually until the school's closure in 1995, and I personally commended all other winners of the award after myself. On a plaque not far from the school's main entrance, a list of awards and people's names were etched on the plaque, and my name was one of them.
Around a month later, I was in the middle of a lesson at school, and the Deputy Head had called me out of a lesson and into a corridor outside the classroom with some good news for me - he handed me an envelope in which as I opened it, there and then. Inside it, I saw it was a card in which I opened it and saw a personal greeting from the parents of the deceased boy, and a twenty pound note. I was surprised and amazed at this lovely greeting from his parents, and although I had never met them, I did write back to them thanking them for their kind gesture. I believe that I spent the money travelling to Leicester and doing some Christmas shopping at The Shires just before Christmas that year, mostly getting some blank videotapes to record some Christmas TV programmes on including the Channel 4 premier of Father Christmas and that year's showing of The Snowman.
I know that one year, someone (who I will not namedrop on here), had presented a couple of BBC TV programmes in the early 1990s and was actually part of the school alumni (she attended as a pupil in the mid 1970s, I think), and was invited to give out awards to incumbent pupils as well - I believe that she used to live locally as a result. I do think however, that a local councillor or Mayor would have been a lot better as a person would have that "tabloid" factor associated with TV presenters which don't really fit in with an educational environment such as a school, even outside school hours.
I never liked that school and I was mostly a "school refuser" during Years 10 and 11, but Year 9 wasn't too bad because of being nominated for the award, as well as the combination of teachers who were there at the time, and the news that I was to become an uncle - the "feelgood factor" was around me in 1991-1992, and I think that in that academic year, it was the tonic that I needed - recognition for who I am and the goodness that I did at the time. It's just a pity that from 1992-1993 onwards, things seemed to go on a downhill spiral in a number of ways.
Did any of you win awards at Awards Evenings at school and got invited to accept it on the school stage from some local dignitary? I suppose that it did feel like an honour back then even if one hated school...
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