Teacher comes top of her class

AN Essex teacher has chalked up a national award for excellence in the classroom.

Elizabeth Bailey, who has a doctorate in English but chose a position at Clacton County High School over a career in higher education, was named Outstanding New Teacher of the Year at the Pearson Teaching Awards 2012.

The former Harwich High School and Essex University student was nominated by sixth former Anna Page, now a second year undergraduate at Cambridge University.

Now in her third year of teaching English, she has responsibility for improving AS and A-level performance and is achieving some of the school’s best results. Judges said her academic background had brought “immense riches” to the school, which is now an academy.

The eastern region achieved more than any other this year by winning three out of eight categories, with David Bonnington of Aylsham High School, in Norfolk, being named Teaching Assistant of the Year, and the entire staff of Oxley Park Academy, in Milton Keynes, receiving the Outstanding School Team award.

The winners were revealed last night during a ceremony at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London, hosted by BBC sports presenter Clare Balding.

The awards were founded by Lord Puttnam in 1998 and received more than 20,000 nominations this year.