GCSE Certificate Presentation
A Celebration and Showcase of Talent
by Polly O’Gorman, U6D
This school term, myself Polly O’Gorman and Charlotte Robinson have been working on organising the GCSE Certificate Presentation Afternoon for the current Lower Sixth pupils. I am an Upper Sixth pupil who is studying for my A-Levels which I will be sitting at the end of the academic year. Charlotte is in Lower Sixth and is studying for her AS Levels which she will also be sitting later this year.
Just before the Christmas break, Mrs Young approached myself and Charlotte about a new idea that the Leadership Team had come up with of getting pupils involved in organising and arranging large events in the school such as: The GCSE Certificate Presentation Afternoon. As aspiring ‘Events Managers’, Mrs Young asked if we would like to work as a team to organise the Presentation Afternoon as a trial because pupils have never been given this responsibility before. With the help and support of Mrs Young’s Personal Assistant, Ms Morrison who guided us regarding what needed to be organised to make the event go ahead, we started to make plans.
Firstly, the most important job was to write and invite our Chief Guest, Dame Lorna Muirhead DBE who is Lord Lieutenant of Merseyside.
So, Charlotte and I wrote a letter on behalf of staff and pupils at Upton Hall School. Ms Morrison provided Charlotte and I with a couple of dates to include in the letter so that Dame Lorna Muirhead could see when she was available.
In reply, Dame Lorna wrote accepting our invitation to come to school on Tuesday 3rd February. After the response from Dame Lorna Muirhead, Charlotte and I wrote letters to the School Governors inviting them to this school event.
The next stage of the process was to arrange for a group of students to perform as part of the event. Charlotte and I both agreed that there are many pupils in the Lower Sixth Year group who have a wealth of talents such as; dancing, acting, singing and many pupils who can play musical instruments.
So, we wanted to demonstrate how skilful the pupils are and we asked people in the year who would be prepared to perform on the day. Many people seemed very shy when asked first but, then as their friends agreed to perform more people joined in.
Vicky Rollinson opted to sing ‘Brightly Wound’ by Eisley and was to be accompanied by Sophie Keegan on piano. Sophie Keegan said she would play ‘Bella’s Lullaby’ from the film ‘Twilight’ on the piano. Sophie Addison was going to sing ‘Whistle down the Wind’ and the Lower Sixth Performing Arts students agreed to perform the dance to the soundtrack ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson.
After performers had been agreed, we could then start to draft out the ‘Order of Proceedings.’ Once we had drafted a plan for this we gave it to Mrs Pendleton who produced the finished booklet for printing so that the invited guests and pupils who were receiving their certificates could have a booklet each.
Charlotte and I also organised for the Catering Team to provide refreshments for the invited guests and we asked Ms Morrison to arrange for a flower arrangement to decorate the Assembly Hall which was where the afternoon’s event was going to take place.
On the couple of days running up to the event, myself, Charlotte and the performers had a rehearsal of the ‘Order of Proceedings’ with Mrs Young watching to make any final changes as necessary. But, on the day of the event, all the plans and organising went ahead and the afternoon ran smoothly apart from one slight hitch. Charlotte and I have learnt a lot from our first experience of organising an event and we hope to arrange other events in the future.
