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A group of teenagers who rescued a pensioner from his burning home and a student who made extraordinary progress in her studies were singled out for special praise when a Shirebrook school held its annual awards evening.

The students were among 106 young people invited on to the stage to collect their prizes at Shirebrook Academy.

The theme of the night, based on an address given by the invited guest, Derby entrepreneur Graham Mulholland, who built up his multi-million-pound engineering business from nothing, was the need for hard work and resilience, and the importance of defining what success means to you.

For friends Farren Walters, Archie Ashton, Josua Jope, Liam Gladwin and Brandon Butler, success was doing their bit to help others, a selfless act that won them the school’s Community Services Award.

They risked their own safety to help two off-duty police officers lift a bedridden pensioner to safety when he became trapped in his home when fire broke out.

For Wiktoria Poparda, success was winning the Governor’s Award for making the most progress out of any student in the school, while students Chloe Evans and Isabelle Corbett enjoyed success across a range subjects, with both picking up four awards each.

Other winners included Logan Procter, Sasha Barlow, Bethany Stubbs, Dylan Thomas and Joshua Browne, who picked up the Key Stage Three Team of the Year award for their involvement with Bolsover District Youth Council — better known as The Young Voice — and 16-year-old Georgia Brindle, who won the Principal’s Award for recording the highest-ever GCSE results in the school’s history this summer.

Andy Gilbert, vice-principal of the academy, said: “The celebration evening was a great success and our chance to reward students who have excelled over the past year, especially our top-achieving GCSE students who came back to see us.

“Graham’s message was very inspirational because of the way he spoke about setting your own goals on your path to success rather than using other people’s.

“In our school, success means different things to different people and our awards recognise that range of achievement.

“He also spoke about the need for resilience, which is a key message for us. It became very clear while we were choosing the winners quite how much they have worked hard and overcome setbacks in order to achieve their own success.”