The head girl and boy at Queen Elizabeth School in Kirkby Lonsdale addressed their fellow pupils in a speech at the annual awards evening.

Florence Jones and Luke Procter chose to speak about a 'secret QES ingredient' that unites the students and alumni at the school.

It is credited to 'a combination of experiences, attitudes and culture which manages to produce young people who offer hope for the future.'

"Looking out at the students in front of us it’s easy to see that we are a mixed group, each of us looking forward to new and exciting opportunities as well as looking back on what we have just experienced," they said. "Firstly there are the year 11s who after having achieved impressive GCSE results have come to celebrate alongside parents, governors and staff before moving on to sixth form or other exciting opportunities.

"But instead of focusing on our differences it seems more appropriate to focus on what all of us have in common

"Perhaps we have the QES staff to thank for how they have treated us with respect and guided us throughout the important stages of growing up. A majority of our staff are here to celebrate with the award winners this evening, something which certainly isn’t the case in every school.

"But staff can only guide us so far - each of us must reach a point when we realise for ourselves that we shouldn’t just be decent to others because we are told to in assembly, its something that is right, something that we would expect ourselves to do."

The long lasting impact of life at a school on a person's life was mentioned at the end of the speech.

The pair said: "Everyone of us will take QES with us, perhaps a particularly inspirational teacher encouraged you to take your chosen degree course, or perhaps its more subconscious, just your general outlook or attitude.

"People say that your school days are the best days of your life, but the most formative would probably be a better way of putting it. Keep QES with you, but if you’re moving on, don’t look back. You’ve all done amazingly here and we’re sure it won’t be long before you do amazingly elsewhere."