QUEEN Elizabeth's Academy Lower School hall was bursting with proud parents, carers, friends and teachers to watch the Academy's annual Celebration Evening.

More than 170 awards were given to a wide range of young people for their outstanding efforts and excellent achievements during the last academic year.

The evening was about highlighting the whole range of areas where students do well and was not just limited to academic excellence, although there has been plenty of that.

Whether it was sporting excellence, artistic endeavour, scientific inquiry, adeptness in language, creativity, persistence, resilience or achieving against the odds, the Academy recognised them all.

QEA was delighted and honoured to welcome back ex-students, John Lee, The High Sheriff of Devon and Luke Treadaway, Olivier Award Winning Best Actor.

Awards were given in English, Expressive Arts, Modern Foreign Languages, PE, Learning Support, Maths, ICT, Technology, Science and Humanities to students who had impressed their teachers in a variety of ways.

Lauren Isbister, who is currently in Year 10, received two awards for "Excellent progress in Year 9 Science" and "Outstanding achievement in Year 9 Technology".

Dennis Dopson-Crake, who completed his GCSEs in the summer, received an award for "Highest achievement in GCSE Maths".

Emma Lucas, who completed her A-Levels in the summer, received an award for "Highest Achievement in A-Level Business".

Special awards were awarded to Sam Williams and Lucy Crang, who were the College's highest academic achievers in Year 11 and Dominic Jaques and Susannah McLaren, who were the highest academic achievers in Year 13.

Guests were entertained throughout the evening by a number of student performances. Hannah Smith (18) engaged the audience with her solo flute performance of "Waltz Study" whilst Toby Moran-Mylett (14) and Kashi Gill (14) caused ruptures of laughter with their drama performance of The Bus Driver, written by Toby.

Gemma Richardson (15) impressed all with her solo dance performance and the crowds were lifted with a foot-tapping performance from QE's very own band "Liar in the Light".

Inspirational words were given by The High Sheriff of Devon and Luke Treadaway, who spoke about their personal journeys to success.

Both spoke of how QE was a "friendly, supportive and helpful school", which gave them a good starting point in life and the opportunities to develop their skills.

Congratulations were offered to the award winners as well as the clear advice that they will never achieve their ambition without hard work!

Richard Newton Chance, Principal at QE, commented: "It was an uplifting and inspirational evening for all those who attended.

"One of our ex-Boarders, from Germany, came all the way over just to receive his award as part of the Ten Tors Team – that sums up the level of effort and commitment these young people have shown."

The College is indebted to the Trustees of the Queen Elizabeth's Educational Foundation who kindly donated the prizes for this evening, along with the families of Jean Grinney and Daphne Cartwright, who both supported award prizes this year.

Thanks also went to Susan's Florist for their contribution towards the pedestal of flowers.