Some of the Colston's Girls' School prize winners at the Wills Memorial Building with their awards (photo by Martin Chainey)

Praise for the 'mighty girls' of CGS

Colston's Girls' School holds prizegiving event for over 1,000 girls' academic successes

Posted by Stephanie Broad | October 26, 2015 | School life

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• #academies
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• #prize-giving
• #jaya-chakrabarti
• #a-levels

Start to dream that you can change the world and go and do something about it – that was the message to nearly 1,000 young women at Colston's Girls' School's annual prizegiving.

Alistair Perry, Head of School, told the students who gathered at the Wills Memorial Building that they had extraordinary potential and urged them to believe in themselves. His theme was echoed by guest speaker Jaya Chakrabarti MBE, a Bristol scientist and business owner, who told the audience they were all “Mighty Girls”.

Mr Perry hailed the impressive collective and individual academic successes at the school over the past year. Thirty per cent of A-level passes were at grades A* or A while the progress made by students during their first five years at CGS was seen as the best in Bristol.

“But education is far more than this,” he said. “We need to believe that education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world and put this at the heart of our mission.” 

He reminded the students that while they were enrolled in one of the best schools in the country, they had opportunities some could only dream of; less than half of girls in the developing world were  enrolled in school and five hundred million women could not read.

Chris Curling, Master of the Society of Merchant Venturers, which sponsors the Colston's Girls' School Trust, said Ms Chakrabarti was a fantastic role model for the students. She presented more than 30 prizes to the 2015 leavers, including the Head of School's Prize for Academic Achievement. Sports, music and academic awards were given to girls in other year groups, including year seven language scholars.

www.colstonsgirls.bristol.sch.uk