Jack Petchey Foundation

The school has been part of the Jack Petchey Achievement Award Scheme since 2011.

The Process (or nomination)

What does the winner receive?

The winner receives: a framed certificate, a pin badge, and £200 to be spent on a school or community project of their choice. The other nominated students are given a small amount of money that they can spend within the school community.

Recent winners:

Amy - Year 10

I am delighted to nominate Amy for this award in recognition of her outstanding contributions and achievements in Textiles.

Amy is an enthusiastic, polite, and humble student whose quiet determination and creative energy consistently enrich our classroom. She approaches every project with focus, dedication, and a genuine curiosity to learn, demonstrating both resilience and patience when mastering new techniques.

Throughout Year 10, Amy has made remarkable progress, building on her Year 9 foundation to develop a thoughtful and highly skilled approach to her design work. Her Anatomy Project in particular showcased her creativity, experimentation, and attention to detail, reflecting a deep understanding of both concept and craft.

Amy is also kind, caring, and generous with her time, always ready to support her peers and contribute positively to lessons. Her willingness to experiment and take creative risks shows a maturity and confidence well beyond her years.

Amy’s combination of talent, perseverance, and humility makes her an exceptional role model within the Textiles department and a truly deserving recipient of this award.

Alice - Year 10

 Alice is a key member of our PE GCSE classes. She always participates with enthusiasm and passion. She was recently awarded, ‘player of the band’ in our Netball Sport Education unit where she demonstrated both excellent netball and leadership skills.

Alice has helped out the department in many ways, including; helping organise primary PE school events, being an excellent helper at open evening and supporting and umpiring at the year 7 and 8 inter tutor netball tournaments. She is looking to begin her umpiring journey by taking a beginner’s course, which would enable her to umpire matches.

Alice has a lovely manner with the younger students and always helps them in a supportive and friendly manner. She is an absolute asset to the department with an aspirational and responsible attitude.

Talia - Year 8

I taught Talia French throughout year 7 and continue to do so now in year 8. She is a young woman with a seemingly inexhaustible commitment to being present and alive to what is going on in our lessons, is always pushing the boundaries of what we learn, and she contributes energetically to every activity that we pursue.

If Talia has already mastered a task, then rather than let her mind wander she invariably thinks of new ways of extending the exercise, of asking me for further French language to use, of pushing the learning to its limit. The content of what we learn in the language lesson is not mere stuff she has been told to acquire but a real means to communicate in another language about the world in which we live.

Talia has a maturity which is far beyond her years and a humaneness which is really impressive and moving to witness. I firmly believe her presence in class is of benefit to others around her, a stabilising and focusing force for good, for all her fellow pupils, and I very warmly recommend her for this year’s Jack Petchey Award.

I am nominating Talia because she is a highly enthusiastic and passionate Year 8 student who demonstrates a genuine love for Computing. She approaches every lesson with energy, curiosity and determination to try new things. When she was programming in Scratch she consistently went above and beyond what was asked, exploring new code blocks independently and pushing what her programs could do.

When transitioning into Python, she continued to show this same drive. She regularly produced work that exceeded the expected activity and built more complex programs through experimentation, trial and refinement. She is not afraid to try, make adjustments, and solve challenges she encounters.

Talia’s attitude reflects a true growth mindset, a desire to improve, and an ambition to keep developing her skills beyond the core tasks given. Her enthusiasm helps raise the atmosphere in the classroom and encourages others to challenge themselves too. She fully deserves recognition for her creativity, dedication, and passion for Computing at such a young age.