A STUDENT has received a national award for his outstanding effort and contribution to a Brighouse school’s community.
Casey O’Connor is one of only a handful of teenagers throughout West Yorkshire to receive a 4 Real Award from the careers service Connexions.
Sixteen-year-old Casey has been a pupil at the William Henry Smith residential school in Rastrick for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties since he was 11.
He is to continue his studies from September at a college in Eastbourne, where his father lives, and is hoping to eventually join the police force.
Damien Talbot, care team manager at the school, said: “Casey came to the school as a 11-year-old with emotional and behavioural difficulties, which at the time needed medication to control. He has really turned his life around under some very difficult circumstances.
“He no longer takes medication and is able to control his anger in a more appropriate way.
“Casey has been a great ambassador for the school and has represented us on numerous occasions within the local community.
“He has many successes under his belt but none more so than the remarkable achievement over the past year of returning to school on a weekly basis from Eastbourne, which requires at least seven hours of independent travel using coaches and trains.
“A remarkable achievement and commitment from a boy who had not accessed education for two years prior to his schooling here.”
