Held on Monday 17^th November, Manchester’s great and good were invited to help celebrate the students’ successes, with local sporting superstar Diane Modahl of the Diane Modahl Foundation joining Lord Mayor, Councillor Susan Cooley, to present the awards.

Both special guests made the point that it is not about where you are from, or how much wealth you have, but what you put in and your determination and hard work to succeed which makes all the difference.

Student Aimen Asif celebrates with Diane Modahl after winning six awards, including Year 8 Computing Progress Prize, Year 8 Maths Achievement Prize, Year 8 Spanish Progress Prize, Year 8 Art Progress Prize, Year 8 Form Prize and the Year 8 Year Director Prize		Ali Ghaznawi celebrates with the Lord Mayor Councillor Susan Cooley after winning the Year 8 Business Achievement Prize and the Year 8 Religious Education Progress Prize

The Lord Mayor spoke about her political aspirations in the Cuban Missile crisis growing up in Wythenshawe, and Diane shared her Olympic dreams as a girl growing up in Longsight and attending school in Moss Side (as an ex-pupil of the Manchester Academy’s predecessor school, Ducie High). Their speeches were inspirational. 

As well as highlighting the achievements of current students with prizes for each individual form, year group and subject area, the event also shone the spotlight on the academy’s former Year 11 pupils and their summer GCSE success, with A* and starred distinctions in 21 subjects and A grades / distinctions in 26 different subjects.

The award for greatest progress went to Mawume Zormelo who made four times expected progress and who was a graduate of the Diane Modahl Foundation. The Achievement award was well deserved by Faiza Mohamud with 8A*, 2A grades and a very special A*^ grade showing her to be one of the top performers nationally in Further Mathematics.

	The Lord Mayor Councillor Susan Cooley, former athlete Diana Modahl and the parents/carers enjoyed a choral presentation by students Sabrina Aryeetey, Sylvanus Aryeetey, Renee Dunn, Moheel Farooqi, Jessica Hopkins, Molly Hopkins, Chloe Edwards, Malaika Karim and Anesu Kundeya on the evening

Other special awards included: 

• Service to School – Abdul Sattar Sattar 
• Vinelife Community Award – Deon Davis 
• Overcoming Adversity – Jessica Lee 
• Peer Support – Abrar Khan 
• Employability – Abubakar Karim 
• Male and Female Sports Person of the Year – Joe Kelly and Hayaat Bah-Traore 

Mr Griffin said, “It’s incredibly important to recognise our students’ achievements, particularly in light of this summer’s excellent GCSE results, and what better place to do it than the heart of our City because I know our pupils will contribute to its future success.”