Selected from thousands of nominations, Victoria Carey, teacher at Mary Immaculate High School, Cardiff, has been honoured as one of 102 Pearson National Teaching Silver Award winners across the country.
Leading up to this, Victoria Carey was honoured with a Silver Award in The Professional Teaching Awards Cymru for ‘Teacher of the Year in a Secondary School’ category. This award is given to teachers for their outstanding commitment to changing the lives of children they work with every day.
Along with the Teaching Awards Cymru winner announcement, it was stated that “Victoria leads with warmth, care and challenge and is always focused on achieving the best outcomes for the young people in her care”. On their website, The Welsh Government Education rewards those who display “the qualities of an exceptional secondary school teacher”, showing “evidence of being an excellent role model for the younger generation and relentless in getting higher standards”.
“Her passion and dedication to her subject are infectious, and she has created a love of English with pupils, unlocking their potential and raising pupil aspirations”.
Mary Immaculate High School state that “Victoria is an excellent practitioner who is relentless in supporting pupils in her care. Her dedication is infectious amongst the young people of our school and she has created a love of English with our pupils; she has unlocked their potential and raised pupil aspirations in a very challenging inner-city school”.
Victoria said “I have been teaching for 16 years and I have been so lucky in the schools that I have taught in to work with individuals who have inspired, supported and developed me as a classroom teacher, colleague and leader.
“There are a wealth of people I could thank for helping me get to where I am today, and I feel very privileged to work in a school like Mary Immaculate that encourages and supports everyone to excel and develop”.
Victoria Carey has now been shortlisted to win one of just 15 Gold Awards later in the year awarded by The Pearson National Teaching Awards, in a programme which will be broadcasted on the BBC. The Pearson National Teaching Awards is an annual celebration of excellence in education, founded in 1998 by Lord Puttnam to recognise the life-changing impact an inspirational teacher can have on the lives of the young people they work with. This year marks its 22nd year of celebrating award-winning teachers, teaching assistants, headteachers and lecturers across the UK.
This is a great opportunity to celebrate the exceptional school staff who have worked wonders during an incredibly challenging time for educators across the country. New research from Parentkind and the Teaching Awards Trust highlights that three in four (74.9%) of parents and carer survey respondents agreed or strongly agreed that they had more respect for the work that teachers do following their family’s experiences of remote learning.
Mary Immaculate has previously been recognised as a centre of excellence and has supported other schools locally and regionally in teaching, learning and leadership. Their mission is to push their students to do their best and promote achievement through hard work and determination, and staff at the schoolwork hard to ensure that their students have the same opportunities as their counterparts in every school in Wales.
Mary Immaculate are proud to have such a brilliant teacher and role model within their midst, Headteacher, Huw Powell said “I am delighted for Victoria to receive this award having contributed greatly to the school’s success over a number of years. Victoria’s hard work and determination deserves to be recognised with Teacher of the Year award”.
Sir Michael Morpurgo, celebrated author and former Children’s Laureate, and President of the Teaching Awards Trust, said:
“Thank a Teacher Day gives us all a chance – children, families, all of us – to pay tribute to those wonderful educators who change more lives than they will ever know. Today we say thank you to the teachers who have helped our young people navigate these most difficult of times, and who will continue to inspire countless young minds over the coming years.”
Sharon Hague, Senior Vice President of Schools at Pearson UK, said:
“After a year like no other we want to take today to say thank you to all the incredible school staff who have kept children and young people learning despite unprecedented challenges. We hope the celebrations today show how much you are appreciated, and that your hard work has not gone unnoticed nor unrecognised.”
