Ellie Davis, a young girl from Bow, was celebrating as she received a national award. Ellie was praised at the Fostering Network’s Fostering Excellence Awards. She won the prize for her extraordinary achievements at school in the last 12 months.
Foster carers, children and young people, and people from the fostering community joined Ellie in attending the celebration. The awards were hosted by television star Holly Willoughby, and HRH the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton also attended.
Ellie became a young carer for her grandmother when her mother, due to declining health, was unable to do so. This meant Ellie missed nearly two years of school – practically all of year 10 and some of year 11.
But after moving into her current foster home, she made a successful return to school. She managed to catch up with other students in her year and achieved good GCSE results.
Ellie has recently built on this progress. She achieved an outstanding four As in her AS-level exams! She is on track to study medical sciences at university.
Hashida, Ellie’s foster carer, nominated her for this award. She said: “Ellie has shown remarkable resilience and has never blamed anyone else for her disappointments. She is always looking for opportunities to give back and has achieved exceptional results despite having missed so much.”
Ellie’s social worker Cynthia Locke from Tower Hamlets Council said: “Aside from studying hard, Ellie works as a volunteer at London’s Air Ambulance helping to raise money by working in their charity shop and gives support to others including her grandmother, visiting her at least once a week. I am very proud of the young woman she is becoming”.
Mayor of Tower Hamlets, John Biggs, said: “We work hard to ensure that children in our borough have access to foster carers who can support them, provide them a loving home, and nurture them as individuals.
“In Ellie’s case, we can see that she is a hard-working young woman with a huge amount of spirit and energy – and has achieved really great things! Her foster carer, Hashida, has clearly provided a fantastic environment for Ellie to achieve these things. So a huge congratulations to Ellie!”