COLUMN: Our young excel in all areas

I’ve recently had the pleasure of attending a number of awards presentations, celebrating the achievements of children and young people in the county.

We rightly celebrate the excellent performance of our young students every year as they continue to reach the heights in A-Levels, GCSEs and other academic qualifications.

Of course, these are very important in setting the platform for future career opportunities, but it’s also important that they develop life skills and enjoy activities outside of the classroom. It’s been a real pleasure to meet so many young people who are excelling at a range of activities, supported by their schools, families and friends.

The FAB (Fantastic, Amazing, Brilliant) Awards celebrate the success and achievements of Looked After Children and Care Leavers, covering art and music, sport, positive activities, personal endeavour and educational endeavour, life skills, employment and training, and personal achievement.

Awards were also presented to “Supportive Superstars”, the children of foster carers who also have an important part to play in the support of Looked After Children. It was fantastic to join so many inspirational children at the University of Lincoln recently, and share their stories.

At the Lincolnshire Show I presented awards to a number of our Positive Futures volunteers.

Positive Futures provides a community sports programme that aims to help young people avoid involvement in offending behaviour, substance misuse and other risk-taking behaviours through engagement in positive activities.

Our winners have given up their time to support and lead activities, inspiring children to take up healthy, positive activities. Many of them have overcome their own difficulties but have risen to the challenge in supporting others.

The Music Awards were also presented at the Lincolnshire Show, highlighting the superb talent in our schools, which give students the chance to progress and play at a higher level. Some of our students are now playing on the national and international stage, with exciting futures ahead of them.

We also celebrated the success of a few of our primary schools that are excelling in sport. The KS2 girls’ football team at Westgate Primary Academy in Lincoln – our very own Lionesses – are carrying all before them, winning the Lincolnshire county finals, representing our county in regional finals and are top of the Lincolnshire league, winning all eight games.

The girls have become incredible role models and there are now 45 girls playing football after school every single week.

And we also met the Year 5/6 mixed netball team from St Andrew’s CE Primary School in Leasingham. Lincolnshire primary school champions and Sleaford champions, they have just returned from the East Midlands tournament where they narrowly lost to Nottingham Girls’ High School.

Let’s continue to celebrate and enjoy the success of all our young people.