College celebrates first birthday

Rochdale Sixth Form College's Principal Julian Appleyard and Chairwoman of the governing body, Dame Pamela Coward, with a first birthday cake

After a year of achievements and milestones staff and students from Rochdale Sixth Form College are celebrating the College's first birthday.

The College first opened its doors to students on 31 August 2010 and since then they have enjoyed an action packed year, including a visit from the Duke of Gloucester, two sell out theatre performances, a diverse enrichment programme and brilliant exam results.

Julian Appleyard, Principal of the College, who cut a birthday cake to mark the event, said: “It has been a year of great achievement.

“As well as the brilliant exam results, which have put the College on the map nationally, it has been wonderful to see everything come together; and thanks to the hard work of our talented staff, and the students themselves, we now have a lively and stimulating College environment that truly lives up to our state of the art building.

“It’ll be exciting to see what we can achieve in our second year.”

Cheryl Eastwood, Director of Children’s Services at Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council, added: “Rochdale Sixth Form College is great news for the young people of Rochdale. Its recent AS level results in value added terms are the best that Rochdale has ever achieved at this level, and are results that institutions across the country would be proud of.

“These achievements should give parents across the borough every confidence in this College to deliver the very finest A level education for their children. The College, under Julian and his team, has a very strong leadership, and I can only see the institution going from strength to strength as it moves into its second year.”