West London College Student Awards Celebration 2022

A glittering array of eighteen West London College students received awards for their exceptional achievements last night (8 November) at the West London College Student Awards Celebration 2022.

The awards categories ranged from Apprentice and SEND students of the Year, to honours for outstanding community service as well as all round excellence. There were awards for exceptional performance for employers, including the Metropolitan Police and Ealing Eclectic.

West London College Principal Karen Redhead OBE opened the ceremony with a selection of College highlights from winning national awards, commendations and accreditations to external awards our students have won.

Karen said: “The awards are a celebration, recognising the talent, hard work and determination of our students and the role our partners play in helping to shape the lives of our students.”

Guest speaker Anna Hanvey, one of our Public Services Level 3 students, spoke at the beginning of the ceremony. Later in the evening, she went on to win the Jamal Edwards MBE Contribution to the Community Award, which recognises outstanding community impact. Anna will go to Gambia in the new year to help renovate a school. Anna needs to raise £800 for her trip. Jamal Edwards MBE was a former Creative Media student at Ealing Green College who went on to forge an astonishing career as a music producer, DJ, entrepreneur and community activist.

Anna said: “My main motivation to go to Gambia is to help the village children by painting the classrooms with other volunteers. I’ll also be taking part in some lessons, visiting families to cook meals with them and visiting markets and other venues to learn about Gambian culture.”

Jahmi Freeman-Wright and Sharnah Harper were joint winners of the Hammersmith 16-18 Excellence award for their outstanding performance in the National Seafood Finals in Grimsby earlier in the year. Jahmi who works at The Chesterfield, a boutique hotel in Mayfair and Sharnah who works as a pastry chef at The Montague on the Gardens are both exceptionally busy people who still find the time to achieve well at College.

Sharnah said: “Winning the award feels like a wonderful prize for all of our hard work and will help us to achieve even more things for the future.”

Some students were so overcome by winning their awards they were moved to make acceptance speeches like Eldouma Mansour who won the Higher Education Student of the Year award. 

Eldouma said: “All of us no matter who or at whatever age must learn something new every day. If we don’t, that is a day lost to us forever.”

Sally Ishag was an inclusive apprentice working on a Customer Services Level 2 apprenticeship which she passed successfully, despite Covid lockdowns.

Sally explained her delight at winning the award: “The first award I ever won was a Jack Petchey award at school for achievement. It was so exciting when I found out I had been nominated for this award, and I was overjoyed to actually win it.”

Sally now works as a receptionist at 245 Hammersmith Road, an innovative communal shared workspace in Hammersmith also offering a plaza, urban park and an engaging range of community activities.

The West London College Employer of the Year Award went to the Metropolitan Police for their work with the College as a community partner.

Met Police Officers have delivered careers sessions to all of our Public Service students and those interested in a career with the police.  Luke Milton, one of the officers who came to accept the award with colleagues Tom Cooke, Ben Lambert and David Williams, is the outreach lead for West London. 

Luke said: “Winning this award gives a strong message that the work we are doing is recognised by our local community and that we are going in the right direction. By working closely with our local community we can gain insights on how to improve.”

Luke and his colleagues will visit West London College Public Services students shortly to talk about Access Pathways, which are a new scheme to recruit more detectives and police constables to the Met. 

The West London College Student Awards Ceremony 2022 took place in the LAMDA Sainsbury Theatre, which is opposite our Hammersmith and Fulham College. The delicious buffet of luxury canapes were made and served by West London College catering and hospitality students. Caoimhe (pronounced Kee-vah) Patterson and former West London College Sports student and Makaton signer, signed at the event.

TO VIEW THE STUDENT AWARDS 2022 CEREMONY, PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW:

THE FULL LIST OF WEST LONDON COLLEGE WINNERS AND THEIR AWARDS.

Winners	Awards
Joint winners: Sharnah Harper and Jahmi Freeman-Wright	Award for Excellence (16-18) Hammersmith & Fulham College
Sicilia Henry	Award for Excellence (adult) Hammersmith & Fulham College
Elyana Guler	Award for Excellence (16-18) Ealing Green College
Parwana Ahmadzai	Award for Excellence (16-18) Ealing Green College
Billy Rooney	Award for Excellence (16-18) Southall Community College
Sadia Naz	Award for Excellence (16-18) Southall Community College
Sally Ishag	Apprentice of the Year
Mansour Eldouma	HE Student of the Year
Megan  Murphy	SEND Student of the Year
Alissa Poh	Young student of the Year (14-16)
Meriem Benani	Outstanding Sporting Achievement
Metropolitan Police	Employer or Community Partner of the Year
Ealing Club Eclectic	Work Placement Employer of the Year
Abubakar Adaan	Inclusive Student Award
Anna Hanvey	The Jamal Edwards MBE Contribution to the Community Award
Hannaniya Dereje	Ambitious Student Award
Meriem Benani	The Principal’s Award

YOU CAN SEE THE FULL LIST OF NOMINEES FOR EACH AWARD HERE.

NOTES

West London College is made up of four colleges Hammersmith and Fulham College, Ealing Green College, Southall Community College and Park Royal College, which is a specialist construction college. In 2023/24, the provision in construction trades at Park Royal will move to a specialist construction teaching facility at our Southall Community College.

During 2021-22, West London College delivered programmes to over 10,000 students, and we worked with over 600 different employers. We trained around 300 adults in employability skills to progress into work and had around 400 apprentices studying over 30 different apprenticeship standards.

Whilst the majority of our students are based in West London, we also deliver training further afield to over 3,000 students through distance learning programmes and worked with strategic partners to deliver in the South West, midlands and North West.