Mount Carmel celebrated the achievements of students during their annual Key Stage 4 Awards Evening, inviting back pupils who left during Summer 2019 along with current Year 11 pupils with all their families.

The evening began with a performance from the school choir of the One Direction song ‘Story of My Life’ featuring pupil soloists Harrison Leyland and Theo Vallentin. The performance was directed by music teacher Asha Javaid.

Deputy Headteacher Paul Dugdale introduced guest speaker for the evening Talat-Farooq Awan who is a BBC Broadcast Journalist and Presenter and who has been working in Radio and Television for over twenty years.

Talat-Farooq is currently a Senior Broadcast Journalist for BBC Radio Manchester and BBC Radio Lancashire. He presents the regional news magazine show Indus and produces the award winning North West Late Night Phone-In. In television he has worked on variety of documentaries for BBC News and Current Affairs, BBC Religion & Ethics, BBC3 and ITN – Channel Four. His radio journalism career started at Essex FM before he then went on to work at the BBC Asian Network. He also mentors trainee journalists and also works for charities such as Hashim Welfare Hospital and Gateway Schools based in rural Pakistan.

He spoke about how after being unsure of the career path he wanted to take and after having jobs as a waiter and in engineering he took time out to travel and visit Pakistan where he volunteered in a charity hospital helping people in the community. He then returned to England where he went to university and spent time volunteering at his local radio station Essex FM making lots of cups of tea until he eventually became a junior researcher then a broadcast assistant.  His career has also included working at Pebble Mill on a range of entertainment and documentary TV programmes. He has since worked for and currently still does work for the BBC on a wide range of radio programmes covering news, current affairs and documentaries and he has met a lot of well-known people including actors, musicians, cricketers.

His advice to our pupils and leavers was not to be scared to take risks and believe you can do it! He said he felt it is OK to change your mind along the way but when your reach your goal then put something back into the community to help others reach their goal. Have a big ambition in life but include smaller ambitions to reach along the way.

Talat-Farooq concluded his presentation with a short video clip filmed in the BBC North West Today TV studios with a personal message to Mount Carmel pupils from presenter Steve Saul.

After his visit to Mount Carmel Talat-Farooq was dashing back over to BBC Radio Manchester studios in Media City Salford to work with Alan Beswick on the Late Night Phone In show.

After addressing the guests Talat-Farooq presented awards to current Year 11 pupils for their positive attitude to learning as well as attainment and achievement in each subject area. Role model awards were also presented, recipients selected for qualities such as politeness, punctuality, helpfulness, organisation and dedication. The awards were announced by Pastoral Leader for Year 11 Mr Chris Cottam.

The invited guests, staff, students and families then celebrated the success of former students in their recent GCSE examinations announced by their former Pastoral Leader Mr Paul Wickham. Special trophies were awarded for outstanding effort and achievement. Harry Sutton and Demi Harris were jointly presented with the Headteacher’s Award for services to Mount Carmel as Head Boy and Head Girl 2018/19.

Memorial awards were presented in the memory of loved ones who worked at or were associated with Mount Carmel. The Nicola Hughes Trophy for dedication to language studies was presented to Charlie Littlechild.

The Ken Hargreaves Memorial Trophy was presented to Eliza Raza for outstanding achievement in Science and The Fred Bentley award was presented to Sarah Hussain for achievement in Geography by Mr Malcolm Ward from Church & Oswaldtwistle Rotary Club.

Special awards included the PTA Trophy for the best GCSE results, presented to Eliza Raza. The Mount Carmel Trophy for excellent performance in the face of adversity presented to Tyler Wright. Lee Scott received the Mount Carmel trophy for 100% attendance over 5 years with a special certificate from Lancashire Council acknowledging this brilliant attendance. The Good Citizen Award for outstanding service to the school and its local community was presented to Rohan Naqui.

Tyler Wright was awarded the Rebecca Robinson trophy for effort and success beyond expectation. The trophy was collected on his behalf by Mrs Sue Crook who was Tyler’s teaching assistant for 5 years, and handed to his Mum to pass on to him. Tyler is currently studying at a college for visually impaired students and lives away from home.

The ‘Dean Desmond Award’ was presented to Mr Mike Cunningham for his long and outstanding service as a teacher at Mount Carmel. Mr Bowers commented on Mike’s long service at the school for an amazing 33 years beginning work at Paddock House, then Holy Family and ultimately the merger of those schools forming Mount Carmel High School.

Headteacher Xavier Bowers addressed the guests and praised the students for their results during the Summer examinations and said it was a privilege to see them grow and develop into young, responsible adults with so much to offer society and the local community.

He said the 2019 results had been the best for a number of years and had the highest number of top grades. Student Eliza Raza had exceptional results and had been placed amongst the top in the country. There were many other individual exceptional performances amongst the year group. Mr Bowers also recognised those pupils who achieved the most progress, above and beyond their target grades.

He encouraged the current Year 11 pupils to commit to their studies and aim to achieve beyond their personal targets. He reminded them that school is also about building friendships, trust and compassion so they can do their upmost to make the World a better place.

He thanked parents for their support and teaching staff at the school for their dedication and professionalism. Mr Bowers also thanked Governors of the school and support staff for the work they do to ensure the school runs efficiently and smoothly.

Head Boy Matthew Ormerod and Head Girl Caitlin Sage gave a vote of thanks to the guests and Chair of Governors, Mr David Rushton presented closing remarks.

before the choir sang ‘Rise Up’ (Andra Day) with soloists Madison Thompson, Charleigh Dumlevie, Lacey Lowe and Shannon Singleton and with piano accompaniment from Thomas Smith-Porter. The choir also sang the Panic at the Disco song ‘High Hopes’.

To conclude the evening a film was shown featuring highlights of the students time at Mount Carmel with images comparing how they changed from Year 7 to Year 11.

KS4 Awards Evening 2019