Congratulations to our second year student, Lily Joy Bywaters, who has not only received our Early Years student of the month award for March, but has also been nominated for an NCFE Aspiration Award 2022 in the category ‘Against the odds’.

Lily-Joy has the rare genetic condition 16p11.2 microdeletion, which means a specific region of chromosome 16 is deleted. The condition affects learning and ability to process information and when she was a young child her mother was told she may never read or write. Lily Joy has also been diagnosed with Autism.

Lily Joy has continually amazed us. It would have been difficult for her under normal circumstances, but she also had to navigate studying through lockdowns. She has kept on top of all her work, made some lovely friends in the class and learnt how to access help and support. Her progress has been remarkable. Now coming to the end of the course, Lily Joy is on target to achieve an overall C grade (equivalent to 3xC grades at A level) and has even secured herself a job in a local nursery before the college year is over. We are tremendously proud of Lily Joy and believe her determination and success needs to be celebrated.