Summer celebrations
Lifetime Achievement winner Sue Jones ,on stage at the West Midlands Teaching Awards Ceremony
A flurry of golden glitter greeted winners of the 2008 Ted Wragg Award for Lifetime Achievement at summer ceremonies throughout the country.
‘I am deeply honoured and very touched,’ said Sue Jones, a modern foreign languages teacher, pictured above at the West Midlands ceremony where she was feted for her ‘long and illustrious’ career.
Sue, who told the 250-strong audience that her parents had struggled to send her to university and would be proud of her now, retires this term but left the ceremony by climbing aboard a bus full of students bound for a study visit in Spain.
‘That’s so typical of Sue!’ said Dr Melvyn Kershaw, head of Haybridge High in Stourbridge whose school scored a first in the Awards ten-year history by winning in three categories. ‘She’s inspired generations of our pupils and hasn’t stopped yet.’ Dr Kershaw won the RAF Award for Headteacher of the Year Secondary Teacher of the Year.
Presenting her award sponsored by the Innovation Unit, Sir Dominic Cadbury, a Teaching Awards trustee, wished all finalists well – teachers, heads, teaching assistants and sustainable schools. ‘After ten years of saying thankyou, the Teaching Awards have established something really important that the profession cares deeply about.’
In 13 ceremonies around Britain 137 winners were congratulated at venues ranging from the Sage in Gateshead to the Assembly Rooms in Bath. They now go forward to the Fellows Weekend in London on October 18-19 for the UK ceremony at the Palladium followed by a gala dinner, hosted by Lord Puttnam.
