Top marks for college students

Just 21 winners were selected to receive Armytage Awards this year – after being nominated as ‘outstanding’ by their tutors.

The awards, which include a cash prize of £100 and a trophy for each winner, reward students for academic achievement, overcoming difficult circumstances and their contributions to college life.

The Armytage Awards used to be known as Armytage’s Technical School Endowment.

Huddersfield man Thomas Armytage left a sum of money to the town, originally distributed in the purchase of wood for the poor.

It later became a money dole until 1879 when a new scheme was started to allow it to help young men in the town to be educated in dyeing, weaving and other processes connected with the textile industry.

Later the funds became a way of rewarding outstanding students at Huddersfield Technical College.

When the merger with Dewsbury College occurred in 2008 to create Kirklees College, the terms of the funding had to be agreed by trustees to allow students from Dewsbury to be eligible for the prize.

Among the winners from North Kirklees were: Rachel Batty (childcare and education) from Spinners Way, Mirfield: Paul Brown (art and design) from Partridge Crescent, Thornhill: Melanie Hawkshaw (hairdressing) from Redberry Avenue, Heckmondwike: Claire Lyons (hairdressing) – from Thornville Street, Dewsbury: Mohammed Mayet (health studies) from Hartley Street, Dewsbury: Nafisa Raje (hairdressing) from Tolson Street, Dewsbury: Christina Sibindi (health and social care) from Rayner Avenue, Heckmondwike.