Upper Sixth student Vova Volkov has been shortlisted to the final five in the William Akroyd Scholarship competition.

Participating Upper Sixth students from schools across Yorkshire took the scholarship exam in November, which takes the format of a single two-hour essay paper chosen from 15 questions on general current affairs topics. Questions are not based on any educational syllabus but are set to provide students with an opportunity to display their awareness of issues in the public domain, their capacity for independent thought about them, and their effectiveness in expressing their ideas.

This year we had seven students who sat the paper in school under invigilation, and Vova’s entry was deemed by the examiner from Leeds University to be worthy of an invite to the final interview stage which will take place in York.

If successful in passing the final stage, Vova will be made a financial award to support his UK university education.

Vova joined the Sixth Form in September 2022 having fled the Ukraine following the Russian invasion and is now living locally with a host family. He has impressed many with his strong work ethic whilst at Pocklington and plans to pursue a degree in computer science at a UK university.

It is an impressive achievement to get to this stage of the competition and we wish Vova well in the final stage.