Five Pinnacle Learning Trust students saluted at Rotary Club awards ceremony

The Pinnacle Learning Trust is proud of five of its students who have been recognised at the Rotary Club of Oldham's Student of the Year awards, held in the Oldham Council Chambers. Three of the students were from Oldham Sixth Form College and two more were from partner academy, Hathershaw College.

OSFC was incredibly proud as the dedication and desire to 'gve something back' of 3 of its Year 13 students was recognised at the ceremony. All 3, Jennah Amin, Aysha Iqbal, and Joshua Tindall, are exceptional students who combine academic excellence with a willingness to participate fully in the wider lives of the college and the wider local community. Both Jennah and Aysha have secured places to study Medicine at university (Oxford and Liverpool, respectively) and have been involved in a wider variety of volunteering, at such places as the Royal Oldham Hospital and Dr Kershaw's Hospice, underlining their undeniable suitability for their chosen career paths. At the ceremony, Aysha received the Runners Up prize in the 16-18 Student of the Year category. In contrast, Joshua has a deep enthusiasm for Maths, Physics and Electronics, and has a place to study Engineering at Cambridge. In his spare time, Josh is a director of DonateIT, a project to collect and 'refurbish' computers, so they can be passed onto young people and families without computer access. The Rotary Club awarded him a special prize in recognition for this unique venture. Jennah, Aysha and Josh are remarkable students and we are greatly looking forward to following their future progress.

Hathershaw College was equally proud of Haidar Ali and Daniel Ferris, who were recognised for their incredible sporting achievements, dedication and resolve as they represented Team GB in Thailand during a recent Muay Thai international tournament. Haidar initially started his muay thai journey at a local gym when he was 9 years old, following on from his older siblings. Finding his passion at the Physique fight club, he now trains at least 3-4 times a week and has won 15 competitions out of 17. He has won an Intercontinental Championship, as well as the Celtic Championship Challenge belt against a very strong opponent from Ireland. He has learnt a lot from Muay Thai, mainly discipline, respect, inner strength and how to work on weaknesses, developing them into strengths. Daniel started his journey at a similar age to Haidar, what started as a hobby to develop fitness, soon developed into a passion. He has seen great success through a number of personal struggles and challenges but has shown dedication and a high resolve throughout, keeping to his training and winning a Celtic Title. He describes the great joy of winning and the pride it brought himself and his family. Following the Celtic title, he won a British and 2 more Novice titles, and was chosen to fight for team GB in March 2024, alongside Haidar. Daniel says that he always tries to be kind and supportive of his peers, due to it being how he would want to be treated. From being young, he has completed a lot of charity work, helped at Youth Clubs with younger people, climbing Snowdonia for Cancer Research, coaching at boxing events for charity and even helping at charity shops, raising money. Once again, these are two remarkable students, who we cannot wait to see what they will achieve next.

As with every year, the organising committee and the judging panel were faced with an extremely challenging number of nominations from schools, academies and colleges from across the borough and had difficult decisions to make. With this in mind, what our students have achieved is incredible, as there were many deserving nominees.