Congratulations!
Winners announced for 2009
The wisdom, ingenuity and passion of 134 teachers, heads, teaching assistants and governors were recognised at the 2009 Teaching Awards summer ceremonies. A dozen sustainable schools also won prized platos.
The winning names were announced at 13 prestigious events held around Britain throughout June. All now go forward to the UK finals held on October 25 and broadcast on BBC2.
‘You have all come a long way since you were nominated among thousands for a Teaching Award,’ said Baroness Shirley Williams, former Education Secretary and chair of the UK judging panel. ‘Schools are increasingly at the centre of communities and teachers are the social leaders and influential adults of our time. Congratulations and thank you for all that you have given us.’
At each ceremony, hosted by BBC news presenters, plato winners were applauded and thanked by celebrity guests including the new Children’s Laureate Anthony Brown, the comedian Arthur Smith, Olympic athlete Sally Gunnell and author Gervase Phinn.
Winners ranged from the 12 recipients of the Ted Wragg Award for Lifetime Achievement, who between them have spent more than 420 years in the classroom, to winners of the Becta Award for Next Generation Learning whose use of ipods, games consoles and mobile phones is breaking new ground every day.
Edward Vickerman, winner of the SSAT Outstanding New Teacher of the Year in the North, dedicated his plato to fellow dyslexics with an ambition to teach. As head of business at Freeston Business and Enterprise College, he said: ‘I was told I could never be a teacher but some people saw something special in me. I may not write on the board but I use technology in every possible way.’
Drama teacher Ellie Brookes said it was ‘the best week of my life’ since, as well as winning the Award for Secondary Teacher of the Year in the North West, she had just been appointed head of performing arts at St Paul’s Catholic High School in Manchester.
Grahame Webb, head of Emmanuel CE Middle School in Dorset and winner of the Ted Wragg Award for Lifetime Achievement, was cheered when he explained that Ofsted inspectors had postponed their visit for a day so he could attend the South of England ceremony. Meanwhile Steve Mills, winner of the BT Award for Teacher of the Year in a Primary School, received loud applause from the East of England audience when he said Ofsted had inspected his school - William Ransom primary in Hitchin - the previous day and pronounced it 'outstanding' for a second time. ‘It’s been a very emotional week,’ he said through tears.
At the Waterfront Hall in Belfast Terry Rodgers, winner of the BT Award for Teacher of the Year in a Primary School, spoke for many when he said it was ‘the fantastic team and my inspirational head’ who made his work possible. Terry, who enlisted an aerospace company to help him teach 11 year olds about flight, said, ‘Every day of my 12-year career has been different because the children make it so. Their success is my success.’
Niamh Carberry, the former pupil who nominated him from St Colmcille’s primary school in Ballymena, said: ‘My life in that year with Mr Rodgers was the best ever. He put his heart and soul into our work.’
