Mrs Gaynor Deacon
Teaching Awards 2009 Winner
The Award for Teacher of the Year in a Secondary School in Wales
Porth County Community School, PORTH
Gaynor Deacon has been at the forefront of pioneering new courses at Porth County Community School for the past decade. Having originally trained as a teacher of home economics, she has since re-trained to teach health and social care courses.
In recent months Gaynor, who has worked at the school for more than 30 years, has been at the forefront of introducing new vocational courses. Working with Cwm Taff Health Authority she has set up and is running qualifications for sixth form students interested in working in hospitals. At the same time, she led a team of teachers in developing NVQ courses at level 2 & 3 in Childcare and Early Years. Porth is thought to be the only school in Wales to be offering these.
These are in addition to the large number of health and social care qualifications she has introduced in the past decade to meet the needs of learners. These include GNVQ and BTEC courses in Health and Social Care; ‘A’ level Health and Social Care; NVQ in Childcare, and Health and Caring. All are over-subscribed and extremely successful.
Gaynor is described as a “fantastic teacher and an inspirational Head of Faculty”, who is well liked by everyone who works with her. “She has a warm caring nature yet is superbly efficient,” a colleague said. “Over a lifetime, Gaynor has made a major contribution to the life of the school.”
Her lessons are described as exciting and stimulating, and she has high expectations of her students, regardless of ability. Failure is not a word that is uttered by any of her students and each one achieves success at one level or another. Gaynor is meticulous in her tracking of students, whether they are based at school, nurseries, or at any one of 5 hospitals in the Cwm Taff NHS Trust and ensures they are following the right courses for them.
When not teaching, Gaynor takes an active role in the life of the school. She always attends the Sixth Form Ball, and supports fund-raising events, including dressing up for themes charity days. “She is a model professional, has boundless energy and always gives 110%,” a colleague said.
