INSPIRATIONAL BERKSHIRE TEACHERS HONOURED IN UK CELEBRATION OF TEACHING

Khalsa Primary School teachers win Silver Awards in The Award for Teacher of the Year in a Primary School and The Award for Headteacher of the Year in a Primary School  

Selected from thousands of nominations, Sakara Foot and Raminder Singh Vig are two of just 76 Silver Award winners across the country. They were honoured for their outstanding commitment to changing the lives of the children they work with every day.

Sakara Foot won a Silver Award in The Award for Teacher of the Year in a Primary School. She has been recognized for her determination and enthusiasm to be an exceptional teacher and mentor, and for offering a range of initiatives both inside class and beyond. In addition to her teaching work, Sakara is a trained moderator for KS2 writing, and was named lead moderator in her first year in the role. As part of this role, she supports Slough’s assessment manager with training teachers across the borough in the assessment of writing as well as leading a team to ensure assessment of writing is accurate across Slough’s schools.

Raminder Singh Vig was nominated for a Silver Award in The Award for Headteacher of the Year in a Primary School for leading a struggling school to success and building upon an idea of a truly community focused education. His positive values and strength of character have provided a focus for all staff, students, and parents within his area.

Throughout his career, he has been driven by continuous school improvement and sharing ideas for education development.  In his first leadership role, he started a group, financed by Hounslow Education Department, to coach and encourage ethnic minority teachers to take up leadership roles in their schools. Subsequently, he became a verifier for NPQH and, as a teaching school, has seen many students from Reading University pass on to successful teaching posts.

The winners are now in the running for one of just 14 Gold Awards later in the year, in a programme which will be broadcast on the BBC. This is a great opportunity to celebrate the exceptional school staff who have worked wonders during an incredibly challenging time for educators across the country.

The Pearson National Teaching Awards is 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 work with. This year marks its 22nd year of celebrating, award-winning teachers, teaching assistants, headteachers and lecturers across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Michael Morpurgo, celebrated author and former Children’s Laureate, and President of the Teaching Awards Trust, said:
“Over the past year, we have, all of us, come to appreciate and respect the value of teachers. They have so often been taken for granted. Not any more. Parents know now what it takes to teach, and teach well, and how much commitment, dedication and enthusiasm and knowledge and understanding, yes – and patience.

“Children know it too, if they didn’t before. So many missed their teachers as well as their friends. We all honour them today. Let’s now praise them, wish them well and above all, thank them.”

Rod Bristow, President of Pearson UK, said:
“Congratulations to all of our Silver Award winners for their commitment, dedication and passion for their work. Despite the incredible challenges they have faced over the past few months, school staff have risen to the occasion time and again.

“It is so important to recognise and celebrate teachers, teaching assistants and lecturers for the impact they have on our young people every year, and that is why Pearson is delighted to support these Awards.”

Victoria Short, Managing Director, Randstad Education, said:
“Congratulations to Sakara Foot for this achievement, which is a well deserved recognition of their fantastic work in ensuring children get the best start to their education possible. They truly are a credit to their school and their profession, and I hope they are very proud of their success today.  At Randstad, we are so pleased to support these Awards and to thank the incredible teachers who have given so much to support their pupils, particularly in these most challenging of times – with lessons moving online and teachers needing to adapt to keep our pupils learning, all award nominees and winners are all the more deserving of the recognition.”

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said:
“My warmest congratulations go to all this year’s silver award winners. They should be proud to receive this recognition of their commitment to the profession, and the outstanding education and guidance they provide for their students.

“Teachers and school staff up and down the country consistently go above and beyond for their students, and this is especially true over the past few months. It is down to their hard work that schools have been able to open their gates to all pupils again for the start of the new term, and I cannot say thank you enough for everything they have done.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

The Pearson National 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 to recognise and celebrate excellence in education. It does this through its public-facing ‘Thank A Teacher’ campaign, and through the Pearson National 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.

At Randstad Education, as the world’s leading global recruiter we work hard to provide high quality teaching, leadership, support, and non-teaching staff to primary, secondary and SEN schools, multi-academy trusts and federations. Our goal is to help unlock a world of exciting career opportunities for our candidates whilst ensuring our clients have top class support both inside and outside of the classroom. We are proud of the work teachers and support staff do each day, and by supporting the Awards, we are pleased to get a chance to give a more formal thank you to these teachers. We are not just a recruiter, but a career guide and a recruitment partner. To find out more, search randstad jobs.

The Department for Education is responsible for children’s services and education, including early years, schools, higher and further education policy, apprenticeships and wider skills in England.

Our vision is to provide world-class education, training and care for everyone, whatever their background. This will make sure that everyone has the chance to reach their potential and that the country has the skills it needs for the future.

In 2020-21, the Department for Education is supporting the Teaching Awards and sponsoring two categories – the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Outstanding New Teacher of the Year Award. The Department recognises and celebrates the vital work of teachers from those in the early days of their career to long-standing teachers who have served our schools for many years.