It was fantastic to welcome our Class of 2022 back to Deer Park for their Celebration of Achievement Evening on Thursday 17 November 2022. We were also delighted to be joined by our guest of honour, Olympic champion and former pupil Pete Reed OBE, our Chair of Governors, Adrian Danks and Chiquita Henson, CEO of the Corinium Education Trust.

Since the Class of 2022 received their exam results in August 2022, they have all moved on to pastures new, but this event is a great opportunity for us to welcome our former pupils back to school and celebrate their successes. 

With over 75% of the year group nominated for an award, it was always going to be a challenge to identify winners. Pupils are nominated across the different faculties and subjects. For a pupil to have received a nomination represents being in the top 6% of their year group for that award.

Heads of Faculty who announced the awards reflected on the difficult journey that our Class of 2022 have been through, but how they fully embraced the challenge and achieved some outstanding results. The winners received their awards from the inspirational Pete Reed. Along with the Faculty awards, pupils were also recognised for their greater contribution to school in their commitment in extracurricular awards. 

We also recognised those individuals who had received significant numbers of nominations, those who had made the most progress and those who achieved the highest grades. In addition, the Headteacher's Award went to Caylin O and Conor H, who were recognised in all categories of progress, attainment and also received the most nominations. Pete Reed presented the KS4 Award, kindly sponsored by St James's Place, to Joe G.

“The evening was a lovely opportunity for the pupils to come back together to celebrate their journey through Deer Park. I know my daughter was looking forward to coming back to see staff and her classmates. Deer Park has played a significant role in her life and for her to be able to come back to reflect on the last 5 years was really important to her and she came away from the evening reflecting on what a positive occasion it had been. As a parent, I really appreciated the opportunity to thank the staff for all they did for the pupils, particularly through the lockdowns. To be able to see how so many of this year group have embraced the next steps in their lives with such confidence is down to the care and support shown by Deer Park staff.”  Class of 2022 Parent

Pete Reed OBE is currently (November 2022) writing 30 posts about Spinal Cord Injury Awareness which are candid and eye-opening. You can read @PeteReed on Instagram or Twitter.