Current and former students gathered together to celebrate their success at Mary Hare's annual Speech Day
Current and former students gathered together in Arlington Arts Centre last week, to celebrate their success at Mary Hare's annual Speech Day. Guest of honor was Alice Perkins, who spoke in praise of the obvious enthusiasm and commitment to the school demonstrated by the staff. School Principal, Mr Shaw announced that this year’s GCSE results were the highest so far achieved at the school with 85% of students achieving 5 or more grades A* to C and spoke of the school’s exceptional A-Level results; the pass rate this year was 97.5% with 88% going on to university.
Alice Perkins awarded individual subject prizes as well as the Hugh Ogus Award for Postgraduate Achievement, which was given to former pupil Sabira Yameen, who has recently completed an MSc at Oxford Brookes University.
Ms Perkins remarked on the huge range of opportunities available to the students at Mary Hare and told her audience that people are very sensitive to negative messages and yet all the evidence suggests that we are far more likely to improve our performance by building on our positive features rather than by attempting to correct the negative. She went on to say that staff at Mary Hare have understood this concept very clearly with an approach that shows an understanding of the difficulties faced by the students combined with a recognition of their talents and qualities. In this way, staff are able to support and inspire students to realise their full potential.
Tony Shaw said afterwards, “By inviting leading professionals to present prizes at our annual Speech Day, we ensure that an external health check is undertaken on our work as a school on a yearly basis. I am delighted that Alice Perkins endorsed our work so strongly and I would like to thank her again for the generous way she spent time getting to know the school so that her address could to be both informed and focused on our continued quest for excellence.’
