• The Award for Teaching Assistant of the Year
  • St Mary's Grammar School
  • Silver Winners
  • 2022
  • Magherafelt, County Londonderry

Margaret joined the St. Mary’s community in 2017 as a Classroom Assistant. Prior to this, she worked as a Special Educational Needs Advisor within the Education Authority and as a peripatetic tutor for children with visual impairment. Margaret works daily with a student who, through a rare genetic disorder, lost their sight, without warning, over a very short space of time at the beginning of their GCSE journey. Margaret continues to support this pupil and has been successful in helping him to reintegrate into his friendship group, developing his confidence within the school environment and returning him to his planned career pathway of completing GCSE’s, A Level’s and University.

Without Margaret’s unwavering support, expertise and wealth of knowledge, the student would not have been able to maintain his place in a mainstream school. Describing her as ‘an inspiration’, colleagues say that she has been instrumental in supporting him in his transition from being able-bodied to becoming disabled and in making a life-changing difference.