On Tuesday 17th December, the School held its annual Senior Prize giving ceremony. The great and good of SGS were in attendance and watched on as our remarkable young students received awards for both their academic and extracurricular excellence.

The award ceremony included an impressive speech from former pupil Paul Williams. Paul attended the school between 1995 and 2002.

Paul studied Sports Science at Loughborough University after leaving Sutton Grammar School. He has since spent the last 20 years in the public and non-profit sectors building teams, programmes, strategies, and partnerships to improve the lives of young and vulnerable people. In his current role, he leads the implementation of global men’s health charity Movember's mental health and suicide prevention programs across Europe, with a focus on using the power of sport to improve mental health outcomes for young men. Prior to joining Movember, Paul spent six years leading community programmes for a Brighton & Hove Albion FC’s Foundation.

Paul now lives in Hove, is a charity trustee, school governor, grassroots football coach, and is married with two children.

His career is one to inspire the current crop of students. He impressed upon them that they need to be ready to deal with the twists and turns a career path may take and he left them with three pieces advice to help them along their way:

1. Work hard – there is simply no substitute for consistent effort.
2. Be you – don’t mimic somebody else; share your own unique voice and ideas.
3. Say yes – take every opportunity that you can, even if it isn’t the one you imagined that you’d take.

Perhaps one day in the future one of this year’s prize winners will be back to share their wisdom with the next generation of Suttonians.