AMERY Hill School’s annual presentation evening gave the school an opportunity to acknowledge and praise the class of 2015’s achievements and to thank parents and teachers who have helped them over the last five years.

Students received their hard-earned GCSE certificates, with many of them recognised for their hard work and effort through subject achievement prizes. Other students, including Nicolas Budd and Georgia Head, were commended for their academic and personal achievements through the governors’ and head of year prizes respectively.

Emily White was also congratulated on the astonishing achievement of 100 per cent attendance over her five years at the school and Mrs Riley, the outgoing progress leader for the year group, felt immense pride in being able to celebrate the group’s successes with them.

The evening proved a fitting end to the time this year group have spent at Amery Hill with guest speaker Charlie Walker, sharing his experience of cycling 43,000 miles through 61 countries. Having taken four years to complete his epic adventure, he cycled the equivalent of twice round the planet and his speech was an inspiration to the class of 2015 and a testament to hard work and personal effort.

Amery Hill bosses also welcomed an Ofsted from the Department for Education which has revealed that the school’s value-added score for 2015 was the highest it has ever been. This is a measure that reflects the overall progress that a student makes from the time they arrive to when they leave Amery Hill School.

This value-added score puts Amery Hill School in the top 16 per cent of schools nationally, with the maths team performing so well that they showed in the top six per cent of maths departments.

Amery Hill’s geography and history departments reached the top 10 per cent.

Headteacher Elizabeth Wylie said: “These results reflect the hard work, continuous effort and dedication that are shown by students and staff. We are very proud of all of them.”