Tune in: The One Show set to reveal this year's Pearson Teaching Awards Gold winners!

A selection of these will be presented throughout the week on the BBC’s The One Show, starting tonight. All others will be presented at a glitzy ceremony in London on Saturday 30 November hosted by TV presenter and radio broadcaster Gaby Roslin.

It’s exciting as we have two Silver Award winners in the running, who’ve already been recognised amongst thousands of nominees earlier this year, and they could now be given Gold:

Greg Smalley, Aurora Woodlands School – Unsung Hero category

His school have said: Greg joined the Woodlands family in February 2022 as a member of our support staff. He brought with him an enthusiasm and passion for the natural world that he wanted to share with our students, and this began with him leading targeted outdoor interventions enabling individual and small groups of students to spend structured time in our woodland grounds participating in activities as diverse as shelter building, foraging and nature photography.

He's:

• cleared and cultivated an area of land now called Highgrove, ensuring all staff and students were able to get involved
• devised a diverse curriculum to spark interest and build self esteem, enabling students of all ages to study AQA qualifications in topics such as forest craft, landscape design, horticulture and carpentry
• set up our “field to fork” programme through the partnership Greg established between Woodlands and the Darwen and Whitehall community garden. Members of the community garden group became regular visitors alongside some of our immediate neighbours who were historically less keen to engage with our learners
• ensured we reached the criteria to be awarded the Woodland Trust Green Tree Schools Silver Award
• Given up a Saturday to accompany one of our students to the Blackburn community volunteer awards to support them as they collected an award for their work with Whitehall Community Garden. This student quite simply would have been too overwhelmed to attend the event without Greg’s unwavering support.

 

Tracy Whitehurst, Aurora Hanley School - Special Needs Education category

Her school have said: Our Principal Tracy has been inspirational to all of us who work with her- her big kind heart, brilliant sense of humour, free flowing laugh and unconditional support have brought out the best in our team.                                                                              

She’s been responsible for setting up, opening and leading Aurora Hanley School, achieving two outstanding Ofsted reports. She’s established us firmly as a front runner of outstanding practice nationally.

Tracy has instilled a culture of high aspirations and expectations, care and compassion for all staff, students and families in her reach.  As an exceptional practitioner she’s dedicated her life to working in the special needs arena and brought this experience to life in her schools - relishing the opportunity to build schools from scratch and applying all her learning to make it the most fabulous provision imaginable. 

The Pearson National Teaching Awards are organised by the Teaching Awards Trust, an independent charity that has been supporting educators for over 25 years. These awards aim to acknowledge the essential roles that teachers, support staff, and early years educators play in shaping the lives of young people.

Mary Palmer, CEO of the Teaching Awards Trust shared her thoughts on the upcoming ceremony: “Every educator deserves acknowledgement for the exceptional impact they have in both their classrooms and the wider community, every day. The awards evening is a chance to take a moment to reflect on the incredible work happening in early years, schools and colleges across the UK, and celebrate all who make it happen. Huge congratulations to everyone who has made it this far and best of luck!”

We of course have our fingers crossed for both Greg and Tracy.

The One Show airs on BBC1, weekdays at 7pm.