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Information about alumni projects
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Our Alumni
Dean Bedford
Dean was a pupil at Woodlands School during 2001-2006 representing Essex CCC during school years. Dean went on to play with England Deaf Cricket team for 6 years during 2013-2019 having some fantastic success. Reaching the World Cup final in Dubai, narrowly missing out to Pakistan. Dean performed very well in the tournament. Dean also played in Netherlands against the full national team of Netherlands, France and Denmark in preparing for t20 World Cup qualifiers. Dean was the top wicket taker in this tournament. Dean contuined to use Woodlands School as a training base while training with England. Dean stopped playing due to an injury but is now back playing club cricket captaining Basildon and Pitsea CC 1st team.
Samuel Wright
Sam started at Woodlands in 2018 until 2023, he was part of the EPD programme and represented the school in most sports. Sam’s athletics pathway started at Woodlands School, with his first competition being held at Lee Valley centre. Sam has represented England on numerous occasions for single vents and also Multi events. His highest achievement to date is competing in the Youth Commonwealth Games in Trinidad and Tobago in Long jump where he finished 8th. Sam’s other achievements include being Indoor Heptathlon Champion, breaking the English Record with 5017 points. Octathlon points are 5435. Since starting athletics Sam has represented his club, school, county and country. His ambitions are to be a professional athlete and to study at Loughborough university or in the US.
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Emmanuel Iyogun
Emmanuel started playing Rugby at Woodlands School and was a part of the Rugby EPD Programme, when it was in it’s infancy. Emmanuel also played for Basildon RFC when in his youth before gaining a scholarship at St. Joseph’s College, Ipswich and in Northampton Saints’ pathway.
Working his way through Saints' Junior Academy ranks, Emmanuel Iyogun joined Northampton Saints full-time when he signed to the Senior Academy ahead of the 2019/20 season.
The versatile forward established himself in Black, Green and Gold quickly, playing two years above his age when he made his Under-18s debut for Saints in 2017 before transitioning from back row to front row.
From there, the young prop has gone from strength to strength and earned international recognition in 2019 – featuring for England Under-20s throughout their Six Nations campaign that year.
After a string of impressive performances for Wanderers and Saints' side at the Premiership Rugby 7s in 2019, Iyogun was thrown in at the deep end when front-row injuries saw him make his senior debut in 2020 aged just 19-years-old; but Iyogun's resilience shone through despite his age and earned him a place in the starting line-up the following weekend for Saints' Heineken Champions Cup quarter-final against Exeter Chiefs.
Those stand-out efforts would earn Iyogun the Club's Breakthrough Player of the Season award at the close of the 2019/20 campaign before he gained experience on dual registration with Bedford Blues the following season.
The 2021/22 season saw Iyogun become more regularly involved at first-team level, as he made 20 appearances in helping Saints qualify for the Gallagher Premiership play-offs.
On Wednesday 18th December 2024, we had our first Alumni evening where we invited some of our ex youngsters back, Daniel P, Angelo, Matt, Gideon, Kelvin, Samiyah, Logan, Bethany, Hallie, Vithusha, Maliah, Lili-Mae, Rachael, Daniel G and Harry to hear about their successes and incredible achievements post Woodlands and to discuss potential opportunities for them to work and share their experience with our current cohort of pupils to remove any glass barriers and ensuring our pupils know that they can be anything they want to be providing they take advantages of opportunities and remain resilient as one of our key values is Aspiration.
It was an incredible evening and so lovely to hear that so many of our ex-youngsters are studying A-levels or are currently at university, however they still very much miss not being at Woodlands. We will be sharing their stories on our website within the next few weeks and will continue to follow their journeys.
Events
On Wednesday 18th December 2024, we had our first Alumni evening where we invited some of our ex youngsters back, Daniel P, Angelo, Matt, Gideon, Kelvin, Samiyah, Logan, Bethany, Hallie, Vithusha, Maliah, Lili-Mae, Rachael, Daniel G and Harry to hear about their successes and incredible achievements post Woodlands and to discuss potential opportunities for them to work and share their experience with our current cohort of pupils to remove any glass barriers and ensuring our pupils know that they can be anything they want to be providing they take advantages of opportunities and remain resilient as one of our key values is Aspiration.
It was an incredible evening and so lovely to hear that so many of our ex-youngsters are studying A-levels or are currently at university, however they still very much miss not being at Woodlands. We will be sharing their stories on our website within the next few weeks and will continue to follow their journeys.
