The Old Lancastrian Club decided to increase funding significantly for this year's Awards to make up for a two-year hiatus and has made grants totalling almost £7000. 

Congratulations to those who were successful, the students' presentations were extremely impressive this year.

Rozzie Weir received funding for a gap year and said: “I applied for money towards my year abroad, during which I will be spending 10 months living and working as an au pair in Marseille, as well as volunteering with a charity called Ramina who work with unaccompanied minors, providing them with accommodation, French lessons and legal aid until they can find more permanent solutions.”

“As well as hugely improving the fluency of my French, I hope to use my privilege to help other young people who may not have had the same opportunities. In the future I hope to become a human rights lawyer, and having a grounding in humanitarian aid, I feel, will provide me with a base of cultural knowledge and compassion to hopefully be able to support more people in the future.” 

Edward Wilkinson is using his travel grant to help fund his trip to volunteer with a community project in Malawi. He said: “The aim of my project is to build a community/education centre for a village in Malawi. This centre will provide education, extracurricular activities and day-care to a range of ages. The three-week project will be a great challenge in which I'll learn how to work well in a team and experience what life is like in Malawi.”

Here are the successful applicants with a brief description of their plans: 

• Jamie Scamman: Marine Dynamics Academy, South Africa (shark conservation)
• Alexander Armer and Laila Hicks: Cultural tour of Strasbourg, Lyon, Metz and Geneva 
• Holly Stephens and Olivia Harwood: Volunteer work in Portugal
• Marcy Jeffery: Medical volunteer work in Ghana   
• Harris Wood and Joshua Hyde: National Three Peaks Challenge  
• Toby Wheatcroft, Harvey Holcroft and Robert Wattam: Marine Conservation in Costa Rica  
• Rozzie Weir: Gap Year and charity work in France
• Frank Kelly: Cathar Way Walk   
• Edward Wilkinson: Volunteer community project in Malawi
• Simon Accialini: Bodenseehof Bible School course in Germany  
• Alexander Allwood Obanos and Jemima Hardaker: La Ruta de los Parques, Chile  
• Alexander Matthew: Orienteering training camp in Norway

Thank you to the Old Lancastrian Club for their generosity, and thanks also to LRGS staff who supported some of these Sixth Formers with their applications.