Friday saw ten of us from Alcester Academy which is where we work as our day jobs, (otherwise it’d be just plain weird) making our way down to the bright lights of London to attend the TES Awards … we were extremely excited having been shortlisted for two awards: Maths team and Art teacher of the year. For the last few weeks I’ve been trying to manage expectations by saying that getting shortlisted is an achievement and we weren’t going to win anything so most of us hadn’t given much thought to the possibility that we might actually win. No, seriously – given the journey of the school, we went into the evening feeling honoured that the achievements of the school and the pupils were getting some recognition …. little did we know.

Overall, the event was just amazing and went beyond my expectations. Like lots of you, at this time of year, I was banjaxed after a long week but it was brilliant to see the profession in such a positive light with so many inspirational stories. It really was about celebrating the successes – we don’t do this enough!

The start of the evening …

We got presented the award by Dara O’Briain – he may have gotten more kisses (oops!) than he was expecting when he agreed to take on the gig and there may even have been a few tears. I know that I had a little cry and I just loved being able to ring my hubbie and besties (love you all!) to tell them the news. I was very emotional. Some of you that are regular readers of the blog will know the emotional rollercoaster that changing schools was for me and I felt a massive sense of relief. At this point I think it is only right to say a massive thank you to the teaching community out there … many of you provide me with inspiration every day. Inspiration to want to share, collaborate but also to be a better teacher, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. A massive thanks should also got to the TES and also the judges of this award (I got to meet the legend that is Colin Hegarty too!) and all the sponsors who supported the event.

I think Seager may have slept with the trophy after he tore it out of my hands – at one point I *may* have been running around the room saying “mine, mine, mine” being chased by him but on a serious note this award is for the whole team including two members who weren’t there to share the evening. We should all be proud of this .. it was a real team effort! There is a little demon in me that wants to say on Monday … “yeah, lets move on .. we’ve got work to do with year 10!” … but I won’t say it!

Ian “one carrot” Hollis

Kayleigh “my room IS tidy” Elliott

As to the rest of the evening we may have celebrated a little (a lot!) and I haven’t dared to check my bank statement to see how much I spent but it will account for the reason I have spent most of Saturday asleep! PS: If you were the bloke on the tube that I made take your earphones out (allegedly I may have taken them out myself when you replaced them TWICE) to listen to me tell you about our award I can only apologise!