Women's rugby star to be guest of honour at Telford school

England international women's rugby star Heather Fisher is the guest of honour at the Lord Silkin School presentation night on Thursday 17 November.

Heather, who was also a member of the Great Britain bobsleigh team, will be presenting academic and progress awards to students at the Stirchley school, which this year celebrated its best ever GCSE exam results.

More than 500 people are expected to attend the event including pupils, staff, representatives of Telford & Wrekin Council and staff from surrounding primary schools who will hear about the significant progress made by the school in the last year.

Headteacher Trevor Goddard said: “We are delighted to be able to welcome Heather to the school, she has visited previously to work with students on motivational projects.

“But importantly, this is a great opportunity for us to give our students well-deserved recognition for their efforts. We are an inclusive school where every child matters, so we are delighted we can hand out these awards to students who have made great progress and achieved amazing results.”

The Lord Silkin School is the most improved school in Telford & Wrekin, achieving a 100 per cent pass rate for five or more GCSEs, with 81 per cent of students achieving grades A-C.

Mr Goddard added: “Considering we had a target of 62 per cent, to achieve 81 per cent was a superb achievement, especially when you consider that the figure was only 38 per cent in 2007.

“We are consistently beating Government targets for a range of qualifications and we look forward to celebrating those achievements with pupils and visitors on November 17.”

More than 30 annual awards for individual subjects will also be presented, as well as blue ribbon Student of the Year Award. The audience will hear a brief speech from Heather as well as being treated to a performance by vocalist Abbi Hassall, a Year 11 student and the award-winning Lord Silkin School Steel Band.