Jonathan Djanogly, MP for Huntingdon, has today welcomed the local involvement of the Reading List Foundation following a student from St Ivo Academy, St Ives winning a Scholarship Award to fund their textbooks at university.

The £250 Scholarship Award is part of a national scheme to support exceptional students from lower-income households, and the St Ivo Academy student is now in their first year at the University of Bath. Awarded on the basis of a mix of academic excellence, personal resilience and character, the Scholarship is more than just monetary, further helping the student in terms of:

- Their academic studies;

- Giving well-earned recognition of their achievements in Sixth Form;

- And providing a welcome addition to their CV.

In 2022, close to 250 Scholarships were awarded across the country.

Commenting on the Scholarship Award, Jonathan said:

“Accessing textbooks at university is crucial to an individual’s success at higher education and, with the cost of living continuing to pose financial difficulties, the work of charities like the Reading List Foundation is more important than ever.

“It is excellent news that a student from the St Ivo Academy has been awarded one of their Scholarships. This speaks well to their academic achievements, resilience and character over what have been a challenging few years, and I wish them the best of luck in their future studies.”

Also commenting Alan Terry, Co-Founder of the Reading List Foundation, said:

“We’ve grown from nothing in 2016 to awarding close to 250 Scholarships across England last year, and it was wonderful to be able to bring St Ivo Academy into the programme for the first time in 2022. We hope it will be the start of a long engagement with them and other schools and colleges in Cambridgeshire.”

Athena Bell, Head of Year 13 at St Ivo Academy, also said:

“We were thrilled to be able to offer our student this scholarship, it was the perfect way to acknowledge the student's outstanding attainment but also the significant effort it took to achieve top grades. This is a wonderful programme and I'm already excited to offer the scholarship to a new student this year!”