Greenhead College is proud to have been presented with the 100+ Fellowship Award by the Kirklees Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Authority. The prestigious award is in recognition of Barbara Farmer, the College’s Award Coordinator and her team in offering and supporting over one hundred students with the DofE opportunity. In the period 1st April 2018 to 31st March 2019 the College enrolled 154 new starters and had 82 students complete their Gold Award.
Barbara has been coordinating the college’s DofE offering for over 30 years and has helped thousands of students achieve the highly respected award. This award comes shortly after Barbara’s win of the #DofEdifference campaign, where hundreds of Barbara’s students current and former came together to vote for her for the difference she has made to them.
The Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award is just one of over 100 activities Greenhead College offers as part of its award winning Enrichment Scheme. College is not just about lessons and exams. It’s also about making friends, trying new experiences, being active and healthy or pursuing an interest or activity. The DofE takes you into a place where you’ll push yourself and have amazing new experiences.
You’ll build confidence, resilience, skills and friendship groups and have a brilliant time doing it. It gives you the added benefit of gaining a competitive edge as employers regard a DofE Award highly so it will help open the right doors for you. Many of the skills you gain can be applied to your studies as well as your personal and social development.
Group Tax Manager for International Personal Finance plc and Photography Business Owner.
Class of: 2004
Gurveer studied A Levels in Maths with Mechanics, Physics and Economics from 2002 – 2004.
After Greenhead College, Gurveer initially began studying at Loughborough University, but realised that University wasn’t right for him. He secured a non-graduate role at Ernst & Young LLP based in Leeds where he achieved his first set of Tax Advisory qualifications.
Since then Gurveer has worked for various organisations including the Virgin Group in London, KPMG in Leeds (with a brief stint in Vietnam), and now for International Personal Finance plc in Leeds. He also continued with his qualifications and is now a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation.
His current role of Group Tax Manager involves looking after the group’s UK tax compliance and financial reporting, being responsible for a range of tax governance matters, and working on a number of projects with various departments within the group.
Other Endeavours
Gurveer also runs his own photography business, specialising in all types of people photography and is also a Governor at Greenhead College serving on the Audit & Risk Committee.
Commenting on his time at Greenhead College, Gurveer said:
“I really struggled in my first year at Greenhead and didn’t achieve the grades I wanted. The staff at Greenhead pulled me back on course and gave me the support and framework I needed to turn my grades around. I’ll always remember and be grateful for the help & guidance the Greenhead staff gave me.”
This online newsletter aims to provide information on some upcoming events and highlight recent College successes.
A2 exams and results day
Our A2 students have recently completed their studies and are now undertaking final exams. I would like to wish them the best of luck and hope they receive the grades they are seeking. If students are anxious about any of their forthcoming exams, our staff, including teachers, personal tutors, the learning support and careers teams, College counsellors, and the senior team, are here to help. Our doors are always open.
Results day will be on Thursday, 15 August, with results available via Exams Apex from 7.00am. I recently wrote to all A2 students and their parents and carers with detailed information about the day. Parents and carers are strongly encouraged to be at home when their son/daughter has access to his/her results. The Senior Leadership Team will be available in College on results day in person, by phone or an online chat from 7.00am. Some Tutors and Careers Advisers will also be available from 8.00am so that students can access comprehensive support and guidance if required. Further information about results day will be published on our website prior to 15 August.
I would be grateful if parents and carers of A2 students could complete a very short online questionnaire which can be accessed via the link here or by completing and returning the paper version which was posted out recently.
Our A1 students resume their studies on Monday, 3 June for the next six weeks. During this part of the term, a very important event in the College calendar will take place, which is the PaWS Week (w/c Monday, 17 June). I wish all our A1 students success with their placement or project, and hope this will be a rewarding experience.
It’s that time of year again when we give a warm welcome to students who will be joining us in August 2020. A series of taster mornings for year 10 students from local schools will be taking place on Thursday, 27 June, Friday, 28 June, Monday, 1 July and Tuesday, 2 July. I look forward to welcoming our prospective new students at one of these events and feel sure that the morning will convince them that Greenhead is the number one A Level College in the region!
Year 11 students will have recently completed their GCSE lessons and are embarking on all-important exams. I know what a stressful time this is for young people and wish them every success in your GCSEs. I am really looking forward to seeing our new year group at one of the bridging days, which are on Wednesday, 10 July and Thursday, 11 July. The day will be an excellent opportunity for new students to sample their A Level subjects and enrichment options, and get acclimatised to Greenhead before the summer holiday.
Examiner Community Awards 2019
Winners were recently announced for the Examiner Community Awards 2019. The Young Personality Award was posthumously given to Carly Blackburn, who sadly passed away in March following a very brave battle against cancer. The Sports Team Award was given to our women’s hockey team. The awards, held last month at John Smith’s Stadium, were a real celebration of Huddersfield and Kirklees communities, and a celebration of dedication, triumph and courage.
Term dates
A reminder that term ends for our current A1 students on Tuesday, 9 July. Their lessons will resume on Tuesday, 3 September.
Finally, for new A1 students, enrolment will take place between Tuesday, 27 and Thursday, 29 August, with term commencing on Monday, 2 September.
Finally….
As this is the last newsletter of 2018-19, I would like to close by expressing my thanks to a number of groups of people. Firstly, thanks to all the students whose high aspirations and willingness to work cooperatively with each other, staff and the local community is brilliant to see. It has also been a huge privilege to meet prospective students and their teachers at numerous assemblies and open events held in College and local schools during the last few months. I hope to see them at Greenhead in the months and years ahead. To parents and carers; my thanks for their support across the year and invaluable advice and suggestions. And finally, thank you to the staff and governors of Greenhead College for their magnificent service in support of our students.
