A time to celebrate

affectionate PowerPoint presentation by the student officers.

The proceedings were opened by the chairman of Governors Roger Bryant, who welcomed the students and wished them all success built on their experience of the last two years.

He also paid tribute to two previous Principals, Anton McGrath and Graham Cooksey.

Mr Cooksey was the college’s first Principal from 1974 to 1987, after whom a new building in the college is to be named.

The new Principal, Simon Lett, warmly commended the students on their impressive academic achievements – a 99% A Level pass rate with 62% having achieved A*-B grades.

A total of 85% of the year group have now progressed to university, with 40% of this cohort going to Russell Group universities.

He summarised the wealth of student endeavour based both on curriculum-based activities and also those relating to arts, sport and charity among many other areas.

The awards themselves were presented by professor Tim Thornton, deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Huddersfield.

He placed the students’ achievements firmly in the context of the history of education in the town which began formally in 1841.

After concluding remarks and a vote of thanks, the event came to an end with two lively and well delivered numbers from the student band HighLine.

The group won the Battle of the Bands contest in November’s highly successful Charity Day.