AS THE STANDARD gears up for it’s second annual Education Awards, we spoke to some of our previous winners about what it was like to take home a trophy.
The inaugural awards ceremony took place on Friday, July 7, 2023 with journalist and broadcaster Lucy Meacock presenting 13 awards to the very best of Cheshire West’s education community.
Categories included the likes of: Headteacher of the Year, the Early Years Education Award, Lifetime Achievement Award and Pupil of the Year, among many more.
It was a joyous celebration of the schools, teachers, teaching assistants, support workers and pupils who represent our area with their care, tireless work and talent.
And, in just a couple of months, we’ll be doing it once again.
Our winner of the Primary School of the Year award was Woodlands Primary School in Ellesmere Port.
The school had made significant progress which saw its Ofsted rating increase from 'Requires Improvement' to 'Good'.
Headteacher, Victoria Carr said: “It was a flurry of activity in those last few months. Because we got a ‘Good’ Ofsted, we were able to convince the local authority that we should be allowed to have children in our nursery, which we’d set up.
“There was also provision for our special needs children, that we’d set up. Because of all those positive things happening it was hugely enabling for us because we could do a lot that we otherwise weren’t able to do.
“Having that rubber stamp of the school getting Primary School of the Year added to that narrative that our school is now successful.”
Victoria added: “[The award] is displayed in the foyer and we get a lot of visitors who will comment on the fact that we’ve won an award. It’s lovely, and it gives staff that little bit of kudos because they work so hard.
“In the last two years we’ve been able to thrive and a part of that has come from the public recognition of getting an award like this.”
Another of our winners was Cherry Grove Headteacher, Beth Hacking, who took home the Headteacher of the Year award.
Beth said that herself and her colleagues enjoyed the “celebratory spirit” of the awards.
“I thought [the ceremony] was a real celebration of everything that we’re trying to achieve in education. It was lovely to be there with colleagues and to meet people from other schools,” Beth said.
“Even when I was notified that I’d been nominated, I was actually quite emotional as I wasn’t expecting it and it felt like real validation of all the hard work that we put in day to day.
“When my name was read out it was a complete surprise and I just felt so proud. To have that hard work recognised was amazing.
“That positive feeling, because of the timing of the awards, really carried us through to the end of term.
“The certificate and the trophy have taken pride of place in our school office, anyone we welcome to the school gets a chance to see that and it’s been great PR for the school to put us on the map and reference when we’re doing our open days as well.”
If you would like to nominate a school, pupil or member of staff for an award, there’s still time, you can do so using our online form.
Nominations will close on May 6.
If you are a business that would like to sponsor one of the awards, contact Kate Neighbour at:
Kate.neighbour@newsquest.co.uk
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