THE HEADTEACHER’S CREDIT VALUES AWARD WAS PRESENTED TO BOHDAN TYKHONCHUK IN YEAR 9 

Bohdan was nominated by Mrs Weston who said: “I simply have to nominate Bohdan Tykhonchuk in Year 9 for the Headteacher’s Values Award. 

Bohdan has been a super, consistent student right from the very first lesson in September, routinely entering the classroom with a polite, friendly greeting and a warm smile. Bohdan can be guaranteed to be one of the first students to arrive, always offering to hand out the books and worksheets for me.  

I understand Bohdan arrived in this country just over two years ago, speaking very little English, yet remarkably, Bohdan offers to read aloud to the class every single lesson. He reads aloud with confidence, expression and fluency; when he comes across an unfamiliar word, he will ask how to pronounce it or what it means – undoubtedly adding it to his ever-growing growing lexicon.  

Bohdan has a passion for creative writing. His dystopian writing assessment was exciting, packed with dystopian conventions, using ambitious vocabulary with interesting characters. Bohdan was so invested in his creative writing that I had to literally beg him to stop writing so I could get it marked in time for Aiming High 1. 

However, the reason that I want to nominate Bohdan this week is for his passion for Shakespeare, in particular, Romeo and Juliet. Given that English is his second language, the flair for the play demonstrated by Bohdan is truly remarkable and a joy to behold. From very first scene, Bohdan has been keen to read and laughs along with the bawdy jokes, often before I have even finished explaining them. Bohdan’s enthusiasm is infectious and I believe that his good humour is helping other students to find the relevance and joy in reading Shakespeare.  

He is an excellent role-model and last lesson Bohdan offered to read the part of Juliet. We were reading the famous ‘Romeo, Romeo wherefore art thou Romeo’ scene and Alfie Younger swiftly offered to read the part of Romeo. The two of them asked if they could perform the scene at the front of the class … I wasn’t quite sure how it was going to pan out but I let them ‘take to the stage’ and wow! What a performance! They spontaneously added some hand gestures and stared at each other lovingly while delivering Shakespeare’s lines. (Thankfully, they didn’t actually kiss each other as is instructed in the stage directions!). I think the class were hugely entertained by their performance and hopefully, in the future, others will feel less self-conscious about reading aloud or performing.  

Looking through Bohdan’s English assessment book, it’s very clear to see how rapidly Bohdan has progressed since joining Richmond School. I think he’s an absolute inspiration; reading Shakespeare can be difficult when it’s your first language but tackling it with such confidence when English is your second language makes Bohdan a worthy candidate for the Headteacher CREDIT Values award.  

Keep up the fantastic work Bohdan!”