Local teachers honoured in national celebration of teaching

2018 Pearson Teaching Award Winners announced

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE 2018 SILVER WINNERS LIST

June 22nd, 2018

Today, on ‘Thank A Teacher Day’, as the national Teaching Awards marks its 20^th year of celebrating excellence in education, 65 Silver Pearson Teaching Awards Winners will be announced across the country. Following thousands of nominations, these special celebrations will take place in schools and colleges across England, Wales and Northern Ireland as the prestigious trophies are presented to outstanding teachers, teaching assistants, headteachers and lecturers.

The Pearson Teaching Awards are an annual celebration of exceptional teachers, founded in 1998 by Lord Puttnam to recognise the life-changing impact an inspirational teacher can have on the lives of the young people they teach.

Silver Award winners, along with 3 Scottish Education Award winners and 3 winners of the Professional Teaching Awards Cymru, will go on to the 20th UK Ceremony of the Pearson Teaching Awards, a glittering ceremony held in central London on 21st October.  There they will find out which of them has won one of just 12 Gold Plato Awards, the UK’s “Oscars for Teachers”.

The October ceremony, titled “Britain’s Classroom Heroes”, will be filmed and broadcast by the BBC as a showcase of excellence in education.  Previous award presenters have included former prime ministers David Cameron and Tony Blair, acting legends Jenny Agutter, Alison Steadman and Sheila Hancock and sports and TV personalities including Shirley Ballas, Helen Glover, Brendan Cole and Nadiya Hussain.

On this special, celebratory day, the Teaching Awards is encouraging members of the public to say “thank you” to a teacher who has made a difference in their lives.  Simply go to www.teachingawards.com/card, fill in a form online including a personal message and the teacher will receive a Thank You card in the post for free.

Michael Morpurgo, celebrated author and former Children’s laureate, and President of the Teaching Awards Trust, said: “The best we can do is to pass on to children all that we know and love and mean every word. I think above all else, a teacher should be a friend, and that’s not an easy thing to do when there are 35 children out there. With these awards we are shining a light on these inspirational individuals whose efforts and commitment so often go uncelebrated.”

Rod Bristow, President of Pearson UK, said: “A huge congratulations to all those receiving a silver trophy today.  They should feel extremely proud of their achievements and join an inspirational group of Teaching Award winners from the past two decades.  It’s an honour for Pearson to support these Awards each year – it’s so vital to recognise and celebrate those in the teaching profession, for their commitment to education and for the impact they have on young people’s lives.“

The list of winners will be published at 5pm on Friday 22^nd June.

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For more information, or to arrange interviews please contact Mary Palmer on 07976 124 929, [email protected] or [email protected]    www.teachingawards.com

Notes to Editors:

The Pearson Teaching Awards are open to every school in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  The awards were established by Lord Puttnam CBE in 1998 and are managed by the Teaching Awards Trust, an independent charity. The vision of the charity is recognise and celebrate excellence in education. It does this through its public-facing ‘Thank a Teacher’ campaign, and through the Pearson Teaching Awards www.teachingawards.com.

Pearson is the world’s leading learning company, with 40,000 employees in more than 80 countries working to help people of all ages to make measurable progress in their lives through learning https://www.pearson.com/uk/

Michael Morpurgo is one of Britain’s best-loved writers for children. With a writing career that spans 4 decades, he has written over 100 books, selling more than 5 million copies in the UK and over 35 million worldwide. A former Children’s Laureate, Michael has won countless prizes, including the Smarties prize, the Blue Peter Book Award and the Whitbread Award, and was awarded an OBE for Services to Literature. Michael was also awarded an MBE in 1999, along with his wife Clare, in recognition of their work in founding Farms For City Children, a charity that has enabled 100,000 children to visit the charity’s 3 farms over the last 40 years.

The Pearson Teaching Award Categories 2018 are: