Class of 2019 Celebration Evening

Former Priory pupil Jon Alty returned for the Awards and Celebration Evening to tell the Class of 2019 about his journey since he left school.

Jon is now the England Men’s Under 20 Football Team Physiotherapist – a job he always wanted to do when he was at Priory.

Jon started the same day as current Head Teacher Mr Eastham, then in the PE Department, and left in 2001.

“Priory is completely different to when I was here but it is the same place,” said Jon. “I loved it here, it was a great experience. 

"In school, when I knew I wasn’t going to be a professional sportsperson, I decided I wanted to be a physiotherapist.  I swam to county level and had treatment for injuries so that’s how it first started really.  I wanted to stay in sport and this was another way to be involved and my grades were good enough to do what I wanted.”

Jon went to Runshaw College, then Manchester Met University before completing his Masters in Science at the University of Bath.

“I first worked as a science technician in a school and was working part-time at Blackpool Football Club. I went onto work full-time at Millwall and Reading Football Clubs and Reading got into the Premier League when I was there.  

"I had been in football for eight years and decided to try something different and became physio to the GB Women’s Synchronised Swimming Team just after the London 2012 Olympics.  That was an experience as I was away from home a lot.

“Due to funding cuts with the swimming team, I applied for a job at Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club and then worked for England Cricket and went on a tour of Pakistan and South Africa which was a brilliant job.

“Then three years ago, I moved to the Football Association and I started working with the Under 17s and am now with the Under 20s. Priory helped lay the path for this.”

On the night, special prizes were given to Head Boy Danyal, Head Girl Georgia, Deputy Head Boy Joel and Deputy Head Girl Trista.

For Services to School, Georgia won The Wight Trophy, Lucian, The Young Trophy and Lee H, The Sunshine Cup.

In the House Prizes, the winners were Emily R (Calder), Phoebe M(Douglas), Lucian F (Hodder) and Georgia (Ribble).

Subject prizes were then awarded followed by cups and trophies.

Jacob H collected the Best Attendance Trophy as he never had a day off in his five years at Priory – something Mrs Swire is extremely proud of!

“When I got to the end of Year 10 and knew I hadn’t had a day off, I had to keep it going,” said Jacob, who is now at Runshaw College. “In the middle of exams, there were a couple of times when I could have done with a day off but I didn’t want to lose my record, I am proud of it.”

Kiera B had 100 per cent attendance over four years while Adam Mc and Emina each had 100 per cent attendance over three years.

Other special trophy winners were: Literature Cup: Danyal; Taylor Cup for Maths: Matthew P; Arnold McCann Technology Trophy: Sikander S; Webster Boys Cross Country Trophy: Byron M; Sportsperson of the Year Award: Zaman A; Peter Young Science Trophy: Jacob H; Karen Pomeroy Humanities Trophy: Emina B and Food Technology Trophy: Katie S.

Image: Adam L, Sophie B, Beth Mc, Mr Alty, Mr Eastham, Adam T and Hannah P, who achieved two grade 9s.