Retired Bell’s Brae deputy head up for national award

Retired deputy head teacher at Bell’s Brae Primary School in Lerwick Irene Smith is off to London next weekend to attend the UK grand final of national education awards.

Mrs Smith won a Lifetime Achievement Award in the 2015 Scottish Education Awards in June, and will now go forward to the final of the Pearson National Teaching Awards, hosted by TV historian Dan Snow.

The award won in June recognised Mrs Smith’s “exceptional contribution” to the teaching profession as one of just 64 “silver” teaching award winners in the UK.

On Sunday 18th October, Mrs Smith and the other silver award winners will attend a ceremony at the Royal Opera House in London’s Covent Garden to find out which of them has been selected to win a national award, also known as a Gold Plato award.

The ceremony, which will be filmed by the BBC, will see the announcement of 11 Gold Plato award-winners.

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.

Mrs Smith was nominated for the June award by Bell’s Brae head teacher Jennifer Wadley, who described her as “hardworking, caring and extremely passionate about teaching”.