Students recognised at Rotary Club Awards

We are extremely proud of Haider Ali, Year 8 and Daniel Ferris, Year 11, who were recognised for their incredible sporting achievements at the Oldham Rotary Club Student of the Year awards. Both Haider and Daniel received awards for their dedication and resolve as they represented Team GB in Thailand during a recent Muay Thai international tournament.

Haidar initially started his Muay Thai journey at a local gym when he was nine years old, following on from his older siblings. Finding his passion at the Physique fight club, he now trains at least 3-4 times a week and has won 15 competitions out of 17. He has won an Intercontinental Championship, as well as the Celtic Championship Challenge belt against a very strong opponent from Ireland. He has learnt a lot from Muay Thai, mainly discipline, respect, inner strength and how to work on weaknesses, developing them into strengths.

Daniel started his journey at a similar age to Haidar, what started as a hobby to develop fitness, soon developed into a passion. He has seen great success through a number of personal struggles and challenges but has shown dedication and a high resolve throughout, keeping to his training and winning a Celtic Title. He describes the great joy of winning and the pride it brought himself and his family. Following the Celtic title, he won a British and two more Novice titles, and was chosen to fight for team GB in March 2024, alongside Haidar.

Daniel says that he always tries to be kind and supportive of his peers, due to it being how he would want to be treated. From being young, he has completed a lot of charity work, helped at youth clubs with younger people, climbing Snowdonia for Cancer Research, coaching at boxing events for charity and even helping at charity shops, raising money.

As with every year, the organising committee and the judging panel were faced with an extremely challenging number of nominations from schools, academies and colleges from across the borough and had difficult decisions to make. With this in mind, what these two pupils have achieved is incredible, as there were many deserving nominees.