In recognition of the achievement of one of its former students, our school has made a special award in his name.
The school wanted to inspire more young people to follow their passion for performing and creative arts and felt that the journey of 2 time BAFTA winning Zuhair Hassan, also known as Big Zuu, was an example to follow.
Head of St Augustine’s Federation, Mr Moriarty, commented: “ We wanted to do something to celebrate and raise the profile of Performing and Creative Arts. We decided to call it the Zuhair Hassan Award to recognise the ambition of a young boy who has gone on to do some amazing things in his field. We are celebrating his journey starting from his school days. We always welcome ex-students back to the school and like others Zuhair gives his time freely as he wants to give back to his community -we are always very thankful.”
The Awards Ceremony took place on the last day of term, before the Easter Holidays and Big Zuu, was accompanied by one of his co-hosts on hit TV Show Big Zuu Eats fellow ex-student Hyder Abdullah -their presence made it a very special occasion .
Zuhair spoke in all of the assemblies that took place that day, and encouraged young people to follow their dreams and explore all their areas of interest because “you never know which of your passions could turn out to be your career”.
He talked about always following one’s dreams, and how important perseverance , one of the schools values, is when pursuing areas of interest.
The TV Chef followed his own dreams and his passion for all things food by studying Food Technology at GCSE level at St Augustine’s.
Rowelyn-Jane Karis, a sixth form student, said: “When I received the award, I was pretty shocked, purely because I didn’t really expect to get any recognition for my art in front of the entire school. But after getting it, I felt very proud of myself since it’s really nice to be recognised for my creativity, especially because it has been a passion of mine for a really long time. As someone who hasn’t really experienced or received any award revolving around my artwork, this was pretty special to me! I think the whole concept of the Big Zuu Award is really amazing since there are a lot of students in the school that truly have a lot of talent and share their creativity through many different ways, and it’s important to celebrate and honour them all in a way. I think the creative industry can be dismissed a lot and isn’t taken as seriously as a career, which is also why this award is super significant since it shouldn’t be!”
The school plans to make the award a regular feature in its celebration assemblies , and hopes that it will inspire many more young people into the Creative and Performing Arts.