Event date: Wednesday 22nd June 2022
Watch the Manchester Awards Showcase announcing the 2022 regional award winners, with great performances and showcases of student work.
SPECIAL AWARD WINNERS
For an ACC student who goes above and beyond, behind the scenes.
Ethan has worked very hard this year and made immense progress, despite ongoing difficulties at home and he has had diagnoses of further learning needs of his own. Ethan's mother has been ill, yet Ethan has managed to stay up to date with all of his work and has produced work of a high standard. He has also got involved in a range of activities in college, including representing the centre well in talks with Ofsted.
For an ACC student who faces, or has faced, a barrier to learning.
Jasmine has a serious medical condition that has sometimes affected her attendance. She doesn't make an issue of it and has excelled in her work this year. Jasmine is on target to achieve a Distinction* for her work and has also volunteered to extend her qualification to the 720 Diploma, which she finished ahead of schedule. Jasmine has got involved in a range of events such as gigs and open events for the college.
For an ACC student who has effectively supported and promoted awareness of wellbeing and mental health.
Emily is a learner who, despite being younger than many of her peers has been described by one of her adult classmates as 'the mother of the course'. She has helped to support all of her classmates and, as one friend said, "will always offer any advice, support or assistance to anyone who needs it." Emily has also been a keen advocate for LGBT community and has promoted equality & diversity in college and in a range of public events, including the Walk for Women in Manchester.
Jacob joined the college last year at level 2 as a high needs funded learner with ASD who struggled with social anxiety and speaking to other people. Since he has been with us, he has had two internal work placements and has been outstanding in every respect. Jacob has worked as an ambassador for us and has spoken very well to parents and potential learners about how much he has learned and progressed on the course. He has also worked in the resources office, helping the Resources Manager with distributing and looking after music resources.
MANCHESTER MUSIC AWARDS
Blackjack have been consistently engaged with their rehearsals and pushed themselves to a high level of musicianship this year. Not only are they pushing themselves as musicians, but have been some of our most artistic students, not afraid to express themselves and are an inspiration to others.
Jack is extremely confident and comfortable on stage and he knows how to command an audience well. His songs are catchy, well put together and tackle challenging topics in a positive light.
Bradley has worked hard this year. He took on the January challenge to produced a track every day in January and has written a brilliant portfolio of music. Bradley released a debut EP on Spotify and its working towards releasing his second EP.
Besides his electronic music production Bradley plays drums as part of a band with students from Music Performance and he has has pushed himself to complete college work to a very high standard.
Charlie comments 'This is the most personal song I have ever written and the song I am most proud of. It is about my mum's relationship with my grandma who passed away from dementia, and how close they were'.
Check it out here
Rob has been an excellent sound engineer over his two years at Access and put a lot of time and energy into this project along with all other recordings he has undertaken.
MANCHESTER GAMES AWARDS
Isaac is a fantastic programmer who has been learning to develop games since he was 8 . Faster Than Light is the game that has won the award. He has used no pre-made assets or code in the development of this game, writing every line of code and creating every asset. The movement of his character is the primary focus in his speed running style game, and when playing it, you can tell how many hours he poured into polishing and perfecting it. The final result is not too dissimilar from professional releases such as Titan Fall. Not only that but he has polished the UI and menus systems, leaving his game in a very professional looking state.
Conor Norwood is an excellent young artist, who has been working on many projects outside of his college work. His dedication to his craft is clear to see. The professionalism in his 3D work is well beyond his years and I could easily see some of the work he has done being used in a professional release.
Simon Knop has created a VR experience that is intended as a calm room, with the intended use to be helping those with stress related illnesses, such as anxiety, depression etc, by letting them immerse themselves in a calming relaxing and safe environment. The quality of the product is outstanding. The particle effects, the lighting, the ambient sounds, and the environment he has created, once in VR is like being on holiday in a world of your own. In terms of producing an environment that could be used to help ease the stress of those who suffer, Simon couldn't have done much better.
MANCHESTER MEDIA AWARDS
With a limit of one month for production, Frankie and Oli interviewed 6 different people all with a variance in culture. A leading Manchester drag queen; transgender male; upcoming acoustic artist and actor; leader of an upcoming band and we learn more about religion in Manchester specifically Islam. Through the 4 interviews that made the cut, the target audience is able to gain a strong insight into the topics on display.
We believe Frankie deserves this award as he has demonstrated excellent photography skills. The image captures the opportunistic nature of the photograph and the utilisation of shutter speed to achieve the suspended time effect.
We believe Ky is deserving of this award as has he has been able truly to flourish and develop in ways beyond his comprehension as a mature student. This portfolio is a depiction of his journey from when he began at ACC to the stage he is at now. He has demonstrated resilience and determination, he has set an example for many mature students who may feel overwhelmed and out of depth with coming back into education since taking a huge gap and still being able to excel.
MANCHESTER EDUCATION AWARDS
Rebecca has shown great enthusiasm and commitment during her time on the SLS31 course. She has engineered for bands and group events inside and outside of college and has started to record her own podcast using our facilities. She is reliable and committed and deserves to be recognised for her professional approach to her studies and her relationships with students and staff.
Robert is always eager to get into college early to set up for any performance and recording, he often emails tutors beforehand to check the schedule so that he is fully prepared. Rob is in charge of any admin for the bookings of students for his group and makes spreadsheets and manages emails to ensure there's availability for students. His attitude to learning is always the highest it can be, and he will take on any task given to him.
Millie shows an extremely professional attitude toward her studies and college. Her work goes far beyond anything expected from a college student and is often of a commercially viable standard. Having achieved Distinction grades for all of her units last year, Millie is on target for a similar profile this year and she has excelled, despite changing pathway. Millie is developing her professional profile outside of college and is ready for the world of work in music.
Charlie has continued to develop as a musician this year and has written some fantastic songs, channelling his inner Oasis. Charlie is a learner that receives support but does not let his learning struggles get in his way. He is passionate about his music and books extra sessions to work on them. Since the outset of his studies he has been committed to learning more about his instrument and production techniques so that he can write, record and mix his own music. Personally, Charlie is quite the philanthropist and is always willing to help others in lessons.
With no less than 7 nominations, this student has shown fantastic dedication to his music making and the college course. Louis always tries his best and attempts all challenges, and this has been rewarded with great improvement over the year. He has great guitar skills and performance qualities and a good plan for his future career.
Isaac has a fantastic future ahead of him. He has been helping all of the year 1s learn how to use C# and develop games, and has even him self lead a full hour -long workshop with the learners to help them get to grips with a very complex discipline. Isaac often helps fix bugs in his peers' code, and is very supportive in class.
Abbie has been outstanding all round from day one to the end of the year. She works tirelessly on her art and has very full and detailed sketchbooks of high quality studies of anatomy, architecture and a range of other subjects. She is a very strong and talented artist and an excellent student.
Ahmed has worked incredibly hard to improve his grade from last year. Through out all of the problems we have had with Covid this year, Ahmed has engaged with every session. done everything that has been asked of him, and has been consistently going the extra mile, working in his own time to improve his skills, and his grades. He is one of the most hard working, and enthusiastic learners I have taught and I am confident, if he keeps is current work ethic, and positive attitude he will have a successful career.
Tsz has been an excellent learner this year, who has contributed to making some very good games on his own and in a team. He has also achieved his Maths and English functional skills at level 2 and has worked hard all year, achieving an overall Distinction on the course.
Both Teigan and Storm are learners who take their studies seriously and always put in their very best and 100% every time. They always want to know what they did well and where they need to improve. Again they both make teaching a delight and and I am sure they will both be very successful in the future.
Nnamdi is a young man of enormous resilience who has shown throughout the year that his sheer hard work and application of his persistent work ethic has allowed his true talents to develop, grow and shine. His final major project was a coalescence of all his work and skills on the course showcasing his very rare talent.
Lachlan has overcome a lot of issues and been a fantastic class member in both group and individual work over the course of the year. I have bee impressed with his application and effort and his drive to improve and do his absolute best in all he does. For his animation piece I feel this all came to fruition in a lovely text-based 3D animation aimed at a children's audience.
Miriam had only been speaking English for two years when she started doing GCSE English with us. I have graded her at a 6, which is incredible considering - she was also the first learner at Manchester to complete all the work to at least grade 4 standard.
She has been an outstanding learner, with 100% attendance. Her attitude was fantastic throughout the year, lockdown included. She completed all the online work as well as improving any other work I suggested. Just a great student all-round.