Joy Ballard of Willows High School in Wales is off to London to attend the prestigious UK grand final of the Pearson National Teaching Awards hosted by TV historian Dan Snow.
Back in June of this year, Joy was recognised for her exceptional contribution to the teaching profession as one of just 64 Silver Teaching Award winners in the UK, winning her award in the category The Award for Headteacher of the Year in a Secondary School.
On Sunday 18th October, Joy and the other Silver Award winners will attend a glittering ceremony at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden to find out which of them has been selected to win a National Pearson Teaching Award, also known as a Gold Plato Award. The ceremony, hosted by Dan Snow and filmed by the BBC, will see the announcement of just 11 Gold Plato award-winners, representing the very best of the UK’s teaching profession.
The Pearson Teaching Awards are an annual celebration of exceptional teachers and teaching. Founded in 1999 by Lord Puttnam, they recognise the life-changing impact of an inspirational teacher on the lives of the young people they teach.
The ceremony will be broadcast on BBC2 at 6pm on Sunday 25th October as Britain’s Classroom Heroes.
Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson, president of the Teaching Awards said, “I am genuinely proud and honoured to be the associated with of the Teaching Awards. I owe so much of what I’ve done to my fantastic teachers at school and university and it is exciting to join in a celebration of the profession that’s probably the most important of them all.”
Rod Bristow, President of Pearson UK, said: “We are so proud to support the Teaching Awards and I’d like to offer huge congratulations to the 2015 winners. Whatever changes in education, it will always be the teacher with the ultimate power to engage and inspire. Great teaching makes the biggest difference to learning and it’s incredibly important that we take this moment each year to recognise this.”
