Portslade pupils presented with awards

Portslade academy sponsor Sir Rod Aldridge told pupils at their annual prizegiving to think big, have high aspirations and be prepared to take risks to succeed.

Sir Rod told pupils at the Portslade Aldridge Community Academy (PACA) about his own career last night (Wednesday 30 January).

He explained how he went from being a Portslade schoolboy, to working for the local council and from there to running a multimillion-pound business.

The prizes were presented by the chair of governors Honor Wilson-Fletcher.

PACA specialises in science and entrepreneurship. It aims to help students develop team-working problem-solving, creative and risk-taking skills together with the determination and passion to succeed.

Among the pupils to win awards were Allyshia Vallier, Rhianna I’Anson, Keira Collins, Eva Lloyd-Ghale, Chloe Cook, Ocean Ellis and Bethany Aylward.

Matthew Boyd, Sophie Reed, Jodie Trussler were given entrepreneurship awards.

Elena Dale collected the Groom Award for Science Endeavour, named after Timothy Groom, a teacher at the school who died three years ago.

And the head boy and head girl Callum Hopkins-Chainey and Alice Tripp spoke about the changes at the school since it became an academy.