Monday 6 April 2009

When I visited Wortley High School recently I heard about another of our young stars...

One of Wortley's young people, Toni Elkington, won the Bupa Educational Achiever’ award at the Prince's Trust 'Celebrate Success Awards Yorkshire and the Humber'. Toni had a troubled relationship with her family and eventually things got so bad she went into care. Shortly after this, her mum passed away and Toni turned to drugs such as cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis to block out the pain. She hardly ever went to school and when she did she was under the influence of drugs. The Prince's Trsut xl programme has given structure to Toni’s disjointed life. She is fantastic at motivating others, is a great team player and has lots of respect for the rest of the group. It’s had a huge impact on her self-esteem and she’s started to enjoy school and has taken all her GCSEs. Toni was one of just three young people from across the UK selected to compete the 'alfour Beatty Educational Achiever Award' at the Prince's Trust and RBS 'Celebrate Success' event in London on 31 March. Although Toni didn't win the award her's is a fantastic story where another young person's life has been turned around by brilliant provision; this time at Wortley High School supported by the Prince's Trust. Toni is working towards sixth form qualifications in art, design and mentoring and hopes to go to college to study construction.
Chris

2 comments:

John said...

What a fantastic story Chris. How heart warming to hear of a youngster overcoming such hurdles and starting to achieve.
Best Regards
John

Chris Edwards said...

Hi John,
It simply goes to show what can be achieved with persistence, determination and hard work.
Thanks
Chris