The winners of the Suffolk Education Awards 2023 were revealed at the grand awards ceremony. Here we find out more about this year's Teacher of the Year (award sponsored by Teach.ac) and the winner of the grand prize, Overall Education Hero of the Year, sponsored by University of Suffolk.
Teacher of the Year
And the winner is… Katharine Minns – All Saints CofE School
Katharine Minns is head of School and class teacher at All Saints CofE School in Laxfield, near Woodbridge. As a Specialist Leader of Education, she has mentored many students and teachers who have gone on to become senior leaders.
Katharine goes beyond the extra mile for families and pupils. During lockdown, she organised food parcels, support with heating and educational resources for families across a wide region, coordinating support from many different churches.
She also created a ‘call and collect’ library, where parents could pick up new reading books for their children outside the school and return books to then be quarantined.
Katharine strives to create unique opportunities for the All Saints pupils and her work on the school choir was recognised this year when the Laxfield Choir was asked to be part of the Children’s National Choir for Children In Need.
When asked how it felt to be 2023’s Teacher of the Year, Katharine said: “I’m stunned, it’s wonderful. It’s amazing to be able to represent my school and my trust which I am very proud to be part of. I am also very thankful for the children.”
Congratulations to the finalists: Charli Bignell – Suffolk New College and Julie Frost-Read – West Suffolk College.
Overall Education Hero of the Year
And the winner is… Occold Primary School
Whilst also winning the Primary School of the Year award, Occold Primary School was selected from all other category winners as this year's Overall Education Hero of the Year.
Based on the outskirts of Eye, Occold Primary School is a village school with a close relationship with the community and aspirations to expand pupils’ horizons far beyond the limits of the national curriculum and the small school’s rural location.
This year, it became the only school in Suffolk to receive a national Reading for Pleasure Award, recognising its promotion of reading for pleasure in and out of the classroom.
It also provides a wide variety of extracurricular activities and trips, has run a successful careers fair and holds regular in-school events such as trips to London, sporting events, regular reading cafés, school shows and training courses.
Occold has also developed its offering to support pupils’ emotional, physical and social development this year by creating a sensory room and separate sensory garden for pupils with autism and sensory processing issues.
Commenting on winning the school’s second award of the evening and the top accolade, Occold executive headteacher Paul Parslow-Williams said: “It’s very humbling to be amongst such inspirational award winners for all the different categories today, and to be compared to them is a real privilege really because we have had some really moving tributes this evening.”
To find out more about all of this year's winners, please click here.
For more information and updates on the Suffolk Education Awards 2024, please keep an eye on the website at suffolkeduawards.co.uk
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