On Wednesday evening, Upper Sixth families, students and staff of BGS came together albeit remotely for a special Upper Sixth version of our annual Prize Giving ceremony. In these extraordinary times, as a school community, we felt it was still very important recognise the outstanding achievements of our students and to bid farewell to the Upper Sixth cohort.
The Virtual Prize Giving evening, held in the intimate LRC Glass Room, celebrated the success of the girls, who have gone above and beyond this year, prizes ranged from Academic Excellence to Citizenship, as well as individual subject prizes.
The live stream proceedings began with a welcome from Mrs Woolley (Director of Sixth Form), who said a few poignant reflections about the Upper Sixth.
The BGS Community then heard some inspiring words from Miss MacKenzie about before handing over to Mr Gardner (Senior Deputy Head), who announced the Upper Sixth prize winners, with Kirsty Stark being awarded the school Dux prize, recognising outstanding academic achievement across all of her subjects.
After the succession of prizes, Head Girl, Leigh-Ann Cudjoe, gave an uplifting tribute to Miss MacKenzie, she said: “We are not only saying goodbye to our Upper Sixth students this week, but we are also bidding farewell to Miss Mackenzie. How do you sum up 10 years of hard work and dedication in a couple of minutes.
“Since 2011 Miss Mackenzie you have been an integral part of the school you has always been very attentive. We will miss you joining our school trips such as Tokyo and Edale, hearing you cheer us on the sports fields, and just seeing your smile as we walked into assembly. GLG and I are devastated we didn't get the opportunity to serve our term with you, but we will do our best to make you proud next year. Could you not have waited one more year to see us off?
“And finally may I request that we raise our glasses (hopefully charged) as we say to goodbye to our very own Miss MacKenzie!” You can read Leigh-Ann’s full speech here.
The virtual ceremony finished with a video montage of the Upper Sixth leavers and the beautiful school hymn, Seek Ye First, performed by the talented Bel Canto. You can watch the video montage here.
The School also congratulates all of our prize winner from Years 7 to Upper Sixth, who have have continued to demonstrate the values of BGS during this period of such uncertainty, and the awards seem particularly special this year as they represent achievements in the most difficult of circumstances.
Please see the full list of prize winners here.