Back in Autumn 2024, Year 9 student Zain shared an update with us on his racing career and preparations for his 2025 racing season. Zain gave us a day in the life of a young racing driver which you can read about here. You can watch Zain's races live on Youtube and can follow his career on his social media pages @Zainkwekha.

Zain's older brother, Zaman is an ex-student of Co-op Academy Walkden, since leaving the academy Zaman enroled at Manchester College to join the T-Level Media and Film, from there he was able to apply for a place at the British Film Academy. Out of all the North West applicants, only 20 were chosen and Zaman was offered a place, this is where Zaman and his peers created a short film which was screened at Home Cinema in Manchester earlier this year.

Further to this, Zaman also applied for the British Film Academy residential course at the University of Wales and out of 300 applicants he secured his place, this was a specialist course focusing on visual effects within film making.

Like his brother, Zaman has an Instagram page @lemonzfilmz where he has started to put a portfolio together of his experiences and achievements in film making. Part of his experience, has been the media side of helping his brother get sponsors for this year's racing season. The boys have successfully secured some interest from investors in the Middle East.

Along with Zain and Zaman's family and friends, we are incredibly proud of them both for remaining focused on their desire to succeed in their chosen career paths. It was lovely to hear from their mum that both boys have loved their time at Co-op Academy Walkden and how Zaman's education here has been instrumental in his ability to take the next steps in his post-16 journey and what a success that has been so far.

You can watch a video that Zaman directed and produced with the limited equipment he currently has to work with. This is an exceptional piece of film for a young filmmaker and we hope you enjoy it.