Early this academic year, nominated post-16 students began their journey in our second year competing in the Academy Excellence Awards, a prestigious competition run by the University of Nottingham which is entered nationwide. Following on from last year’s success, nominees from Landau Forte College were presented with the challenge of writing an essay in a specialist subject area, which they hoped would get them through to the longlist and then the shortlist. As well as essay entrants, there was also a Team Award challenge, involving quality of life and well-being, with the team focusing on a community in Gaza for their proposals to improve quality of life.

The students were once again successful, dominating the longlist of which three individual entrants and the team progressed to the shortlist. Bhavan Chahal (Year 12) was shortlisted in the Maths category, Charles Mason (Year 12) for Biology, Joe Trail (Year 13) for Politics and Michael Bax (Year 12), Jordan Jones (Year 13), Adam West (Year 13), Sanaah Sultan (Year 12) and Emily Edwards (Year 12) for the Quality of Life and Well-being video essay. All were thrilled to be one of the 40 academies who reached the shortlist, out of over 300 entrants, and eagerly anticipated the final outcome.

Shortlisted entrants attended an Inspiration Day at the University of Nottingham on the 4th of July, where they participated in a range of enterprising workshops. In the evening, they enjoyed the grandeur of red-carpet treatment and string quartets at the East Midlands Conference Centre, joining many new friends, celebrities and academics for the dinner and Awards ceremony itself.

Amid fierce competition this year, Joe Trail is to be congratulated on winning the Politics Award, for which he had to propose a new law. Joe’s mature and powerful proposal for a rethink on the law pertaining to assisted suicide won him £1000, plus an internship with international law firm, Ashurt LLP.