A Prize Celebration: Prizegiving 2025

Renowned singer, songwriter, record producer, television personality and philanthropist Gary Barlow OBE was the inspirational special guest and speaker at this year’s Harrodian prizegiving event.

Prizegiving evening is always an uplifting and joyous moment in our school calendar. The evening brings together both current Harrodian Sixth Formers, last year’s A Level students and their parents to acknowledge the achievements of our Senior pupils and departing Harrodians across all aspects of school life.

As well as providing our community with the chance to dress-up and congratulate one another more formally, this year’s event provided Harrodians with a unique opportunity to learn about the keys to success that producer and writer of global hits such as 'Back for Good' and 'Rule the World' considers essential to happiness in life.

Mr Barlow began his speech by sharing his own journey with students, beginning with a look back at his teenage diary. 'On this date - September 11th - when I was the same age as some of you are now, I was playing at the Montrose Club in Liverpool with people like Cannon and Ball,' he recalled. But his love of music started even earlier. At the age of nine he began piano lessons, played his first gig at eleven, and then spent 'thousands of hours' crafting his art, completing his classical piano exams and  devouring every note of music he could along the way. Reflecting on his years of music study, he told the audience: 'Education sets you up for life,' explaining that the hours he devoted to learning meant that, even as a young man, he was ready and prepared to enter the working world. 

Mr Barlow has some extraordinary achievements and experiences to look back on in his long career. He topped the singles chart no less than 12 times with Take That, closed the London Olympics ceremony with the band and organised the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee concert in the same year, 2012.   But despite a lifetime of success he admits that he still finds himself pinching himself and wondering 'What the hell I am doing here?"   'I never feel I have done a day’s hard work in my life,' he says, 'because I have been lucky enough to turn my hobby into a career.'

More than the excellent exam results, what has impressed him most about Harrodian over the years is the strong and kind friendships students form with each other. Before closing, he promised to pass on his three keys to success once shared with him by an older colleague and mentor. He threw in a playful twist, setting a timer on his phone that went off after he had only been able to disclose the first two  — just as had happened to him as a young man, expect he had waited 20 years for his colleague to disclose the final secret. The message he left the audience was simple but powerful: work hard, enjoy the journey not just the destination, and then the rest will fall into place. 

During the ceremony, outgoing Sixth Former Rocco, who will be studying Performance and Recording at the University of West London, gave an incredible vocal/piano performance of Elton John's 'Your Song' which Mr Barlow complimented him on.

Congratulations to all our prize winners and thank you to alumna Eliza Pritchett and Upper Sixth photography student Bay for taking the photos.

Mr Gary Barlow very kindly agreed to present all Harrodian’s prizewinners with their awards. All the pictures we took accompanying this article can be seen in our special prizewinners gallery.