Passports for life

    SIXTH form students have become the first pupils at Dover Boys' Grammar School to receive Records of Achievement.

Brian Lowe, area TVEI director, presents Records of Achievement to sixth form students at Dover Boys' Grammar School Photograph by Graham Tutthill.

    The presentations were made by area TVEI director Brian Lowe at the school on Thursday when he urged the boys to keep the all-important documents up to date.
    Pupils and teachers help compile the documents which list not only the academic and exam successes of each boy, but also their extracurricular activities and an assessment of what they have achieved and enjoyed - at school.
    They are designed to give higher education chiefs and prospective employers a more complete picture of each individual.
    Mr Lowe, who also accredited the school for the scheme, told the boys that the comments contained in the records reflected what they had obtained from school.
    "It is a picture of what you have thought of yourself and what your teachers have thought of you," be said.
    They are all individual records. If you don't update them to show what you have done since then they don't have much value or use.
    "Records of Achievement can be valuable in gaining a place in higher education," said Mr Lowe who told of one girl who didn't gain sufficient grades to enter a university but was offered a place as a result of the information contained in her file.
    "They are about self esteem and convincing others that you are credible. They have been referred to as a passport for life, and the Government sees them as very important documents for the future.
    More than 60 boys were presented with their records. The scheme was co-ordinated at the school by the head of middle school, Richard Davies.