Winners join judging panels across the UK
Claire Davidson, national winner of the 2004 Award for School and Community Involvement
Teachers being nominated now for a Teaching Award will be judged by others who have proved outstanding in the nation’s classrooms. Many judges are themselves winners of Plato trophies, education’s symbol of excellence.
Around two-thirds of all 417 judges nationwide have experienced the thrill of winning at a Teaching Awards ceremony and appreciate the value that a nomination, and ultimately a Plato, can bring to a school.
In 2008 59 winners have become judges for the first time and will give an estimated seven-and-a-half days to the process.
Lord Puttnam, who founded the Awards in 1998 ‘for the profession, by the profession’,is encouraging everyone to get online at www.teachingawards.com in this tenth anniversary year.
He said: ‘After a decade, we have a dynamic network of winners throughout the country who are sharing good practice and raising the profile of schools.
‘To recognise your school’s brilliant professionals, including heads, teaching assistants or governors, meet our 2008 deadline: it’s midnight Saturday 1 March! ’
Nominations are considered by 11 regional judging panels in England and by similar panels in Wales and Northern Ireland.
Each panel is a 30-strong team of education experts often led by national winners such as Claire Davidson (2004 Award for School and Community Involvement) of Ridgeway School, Devon who is chair of judges in the South West and Tony Cooper CBE (2000 Award for Secondary Headteacher of the Year) of Aldercar Community Language College, Derbyshire who is chair of the East Midlands panel.
This year Claire Davidson and Tony Cooper have joined the national judging panel too, chaired by Baroness Shirley Williams. Welcoming them and their colleagues, Caroline Evans, chief executive said: ‘Our judges are the touchstone of the Teaching Awards, giving professional credibility to all stages of the process. They give hours of their own time to reveal and reward many unsung heroes in the nation’s schools.’
