College wins national Social Mobility award

Birkenhead Sixth Form College has won a national award that recognises the College’s commitment to ensuring that every student achieves their full potential, no matter their background.

 

The Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA) Social Mobility Award win celebrates the College’s support for young people from all communities to give them the best chances in life, with specific programmes and initiatives put in place to enhance the opportunities afforded to those from disadvantaged backgrounds or circumstances.

 

At the heart of the College’s ethos is that a commitment from students and staff alike towards purposeful hard work, positivity and ambition means that any young person can succeed in fulfilling or even bettering their potential. This mentality and work ethic has seen students achieve the best results in Wirral, and in the top 10% nationally, in terms of the progress they make from their GCSE attainment level.

 

The Sixth Form Colleges Association said in a statement: “The SFCA Annual Awards initiative represents an important opportunity to identify, celebrate and showcase exceptional practice across the dedicated sixth form sector. There is clearly an enormous range of good practice in colleges, and so many examples of hard work, creative thinking and shared endeavor, which are making a real and sustainable difference to the lives of young people.”

 

Principal at Birkenhead Sixth Form College, Mike Kilbride, said: “To win this award means a great deal to us and what we stand for. The College itself is an engine of social mobility and it is powered by a fundamental belief that disadvantaged students, marginalised at 11-years-old in a borough segregated by economic and social deprivation, can succeed academically and aspire to the best universities and apprenticeships.

 

“Social Mobility is a key focus in everything that we do. It’s not about taking one disadvantaged child into selective education to ‘better their chances’; it’s about making sure that everyone is on an even playing field to start with.”

 

Mike concluded: “The SFCA Social Mobility Award is certainly recognition for the staff at the College and the tremendous work they do, day in, day out, but it’s also a fitting tribute to the commitment and effort of our students, whose achievements are down to their personal endeavour, and we are immensely proud of them.”