Podium Awards 2012: Spotlight on Hackney Community College

Posted 4th May 2012

Hackney Community College staff and students were celebrating after receiving three awards at the Podium 2012 Awards for further and higher education’s work inspired by the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Furthermore, a Hackney Community College catering student was selected to be the keynote speaker at the prestigious national event.

Kayleigh Magson spoke passionately about her personal experience of the opportunities of the Games. Kayleigh is part of a “squad” of Hackney Community College catering students who will be preparing and serving food in Olympic venues, to the public and to VIPs.

Kayleigh said: “I want to thank my college, and everyone in this room who has made sure that the Games bring real opportunities to real people like me. I’m just one example of thousands of students who have been inspired by what’s going on in London 2012.”

Hackney Community College picked up a medal for a project combining ESOL and Fashion. Students worked together to design and make a jacket incorporating flags of all the Olympic teams.

The college was also proud to be involved in two partnership initiatives which both collected awards:

The Inter College Festival of Sport is a joint initiative between nine colleges in the Olympic host boroughs and supported by the University of East London. The annual festival is open to all students at the participating colleges giving the opportunity for them to take part in new sports. Over 400 students from across the nine colleges took part in one or more of the ten sports offered, or as volunteers, across the six days of the competition last year.

Legacy Champions is a partnership of 10 colleges in the Olympic boroughs, supported by EDF Energy and Envision youth charity. 100 students each year work on volunteering projects in their communities that are designed to have a real lasting legacy, linked to the Olympic values. They also come together for larger group legacy activities, such as Thames Clean-ups, and celebrations.

Principal of Hackney Community College Ian Ashman also took the stage to award the prize for the Inspirational Skills project.

London 2012 Chief Executive Paul Deighton said: “Colleges and universities have played an integral role in supporting London 2012. I congratulate all of the Podium Awards winning projects on their exceptional work. The 230 projects nominated all serve as a tremendous example of how the power of the Games is being used to inspire people to make a real and lasting difference.”

Hackney Community College is also proud to be a delivery partner for two other award winning initiatives; Personal Best prepared people to become Games Maker volunteers, and Bridging the Gap is training young people to work in Security roles at the Games. Both of these projects won gold medals at the awards.