A YEAR of excellence at a North Yorkshire school was celebrated at its annual awards evening.

Academic prizes, sporting awards and GCSE certificates were presented to the St Francis Xavier School’s leavers of 2015, by Rishi Sunak, MP for Richmond.

Headteacher Sharon Keelan-Beardsley praised students for the commitment shown and the staff and parents who had supported them.

This year’s GCSE results had been excellent, she said, with more than one third of students achieving three A or A* grades in the examinations. SFX remained among the top performing schools in the county.

“It is the people here who make this happen,” she added. “I am really proud of all the staff. They go the extra mile and are well supported by parents.”

Mr Sunak told students to be imaginative about their futures, to be creative and to trust their ideas and about the importance of parents in helping them achieve.

He added:“It is an honour to be here and to celebrate your success. I commend you all on your hard work.”

Senior awards presented by Mr Sunak included: Award for Effort 2015: Hannah Cook and Ashriti Gurung; Award for progress in key stage 4, 2015: William Neale; Award for outstanding academic achievement 2015: Harriet Iveson, Haydn Simper & Elizabeth Lees; The Vanessa Oldfield Award for overall contribution to the life of the school 2015: Finn Morgan and Isabella Hope; The Fran Neate Award for Outstanding Commitment to the School: Lisa-Marie Brewitt and Robert Wingate; and The Jonathan Vasey Head of School Shield was presented by Harriet Iveson and Finn Morgan to the head students for 2015-16: Maisie Humphries and James Morrison.