TWO Okehampton College students have been presented with special award by one of the town's community groups.
The award has been introduced to recognise those students who have made the greatest academic improvement from KS2 to GCSE level and is sponsored by Okehampton and District Lions Club.
The recipients of the new awards are Carl Woodison and Emily Cobbledick.
At the end of Year 9, when SATS were still being taken, schools and colleges identified the GCSE grades a student would be likely to achieve. Carl achieved GCSE results that were 14 grades above expectation. Emily was 13 grades above expectation. Yet both Carl and Emily began Year 7 with differing levels of learning support.
Emily's teachers recall a student who worked really hard and put in whatever time was necessary to achieve good results, showing 'a level of maturity beyond her years'.
Carl out-performed every expectation Okehampton College had for him at GCSE level.
Carl's achievement registers as even more outstanding, as throughout most of his time at the college, Carl received support from its special educational needs department, in particular, teaching assistant Chrissie Jeffries.
Lion President Brian Barkwell said: 'Okehampton and District Lions Club are proud to be asked to sponsor this award and it was a great honour to invite these two young students to come along to our March meeting and present them with their awards.
'They have clearly worked extremely hard and can be very proud of their achievements so far, and we wish them every success with their futures.'