Finalists announced for the 2010 Teaching Awards
Exceptional headteachers, outstanding new teachers and those with a lifetime’s experience will be among more than 200 education stars expected to shine this summer as finalists at the 2010 Teaching Awards.
Cheers and applause will greet the names of 218 finalists at 7 prestigious ceremonies held across the UK over a three week period, from June 8 at The Waterfront Hall, Belfast until June 24 at Rhodes Arts Complex, Hertfordshire. Each event will be hosted by a BBC TV news presenter.
Workshops will take place before each ceremony, led by Baroness (Shirley) Williams, chair of the UK judging panel, and Ben Walden from Mythodrama - a company set up by Richard Olivier, focusing on teaching leadership through Shakespeare.
Presenters will include Teaching Awards president Emma Thompson, Teaching Awards patron Henry Winkler (aka The Fonz) and TV personality Carol Vorderman.
There will be 71 winners in 11 categories for headteachers, teachers, teaching assistants, governors, sustainable schools and outstanding school teams. Each will go forward to the UK finals held in London in October and televised on BBC2.
The Teaching Awards were founded by Lord Puttnam CBE in 1998. Following the tenth anniversary celebrations in 2008, Will Wyatt CBE, former deputy director general of the BBC became the new chairman of the Teaching Awards Trust and Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson accepted the role of president.
Congratulating the shortlisted finalists, Caroline Evans, chief executive of the Teaching Awards said:
‘This is a record year for the Teaching Awards with more than 9,200 nominations. Each and every one has been thanked for making a difference to the lives of children and young people. Now the finalists have been chosen and our judges have visited all their schools. Our summer ceremonies are a terrific celebration of all that is good in education and I am excited to be meeting the new Class of 2010. Good luck everyone and well done for coming this far’.
Carol Vorderman said: ‘Teachers can change the world. My primary school headmaster Mr Jemmett was strict but funny and loving, with mountainous ambition for all the children in his care. And Mr Parry was the most brilliant maths teacher on God's full earth. I truly have everything to thank them for. They are not alone. Teachers have the capacity and privilege to alter lives profoundly, and the special ones do exactly that. The Teaching Awards are here to celebrate exactly that.'
Wing Commander Pete Jacobs said: ‘This is the Royal Air Force’s seventh year of involvement with the Teaching Awards Trust because we believe that excellence in any profession deserves recognition, especially in one as critical to the UK’s future as teaching.
‘The two regional awards - the RAF Award for the Teacher of the Year in a Primary School and the RAF Award for the Teacher of the Year in a Secondary School – are categories with particular applicability to us because the winners will have demonstrated key attributes that we seek in all our personnel such as commitment, enthusiasm, strong leadership and the power to inspire.’
