Students, Lawrence D, Antonia C and Samantha S have all received one of our "Community Champion' awards for their excellent contribution to our Year 6 Open Evening event in September. The three students were nominated by staff.

Over 750 visitors joined us this year to view our facilities, hear about the many opportunities we offer our students, and to take part in a range of fun activities in all departments. Thankfully, an army of enthusiastic student volunteers were on hand throughout the evening to assist in classrooms, answer questions and to offer guided tours around the school.

Following the event, we received excellent feedback from both our staff and members of the public on the positive attitude shown by our young people on the night. Visitors commended students on their friendliness, manners and desire to help; and many feedback forms stated that students had been a credit to the Academy.

We are, of course, delighted to hear our students praised in this way and invited nominations for three awards from our team of staff. The winners were Year 7 student, Lawrence, who made quite an impression at the event, greeting visitors as they entered King James and taking families on guided tours throughout the evening; Year 11 student, Antonia, who worked tirelessly in the Music Department encouraging youngsters to join in the activities; and Sixth Former, Samantha, who helped to create and supervise the fascinating activities in Science.

We would like to congratulate our winners and offer our sincere thanks to all of our volunteers who helped to make the event such a roaring success.