Last chance to nominate your local service for Scottish Education Awards

The closing date for nominations for the Scottish Education Awards is 5th March.

As you’ll see from the list of awards below, they cover schools at all levels, nurseries and individual staff. They attract hundreds of nominations from across Scotland but these will be no more than a percentage of those whose work deserves recognition.

Argyll has dedicated staff across the full range of nursery, pre-school and school services. It has schools in all categories who demonstrate imagination and commitment in offering developmental challenge to their pupils.

Such schools build their pupils’ skills, develop their confidence and self esteem and prepare them to meet with ability, sensitivity and positive energy the training, working and personal lives ahead of them.

The contributions made by teachers and schools (by which we mean people too, of course) tend to be taken for granted – or recognised too late.

These awards offer the opportunity to nominate significant work being done in Argyll while those who are delivering it are still working in the area and here to know how much they are appreciated.

As Councillor Isobel Strong, Argyll and Bute’s spokesperson for Education and Lifelong Learning, points out, last year Argyll won two awards and was shortlisted for wo more.

‘We won two of the main categories’, she says, ‘with Oban High School’s principal teacher of mathematics, John Mackenzie, picking up the coveted Lifetime Achievement Award and Kilcreggan Primary School winning the CBI Schools for All accolade.

‘Two others were also shortlisted for major awards – Kilmartin Primary School teacher Simone McAdam in the Teacher of the Year category and Dunoon Grammar School in the Homecoming Scotland category.’

However, it’s all about people taking the trouble to look at their local services and to nominate what they see as worthy of nationwide recognition. There can be no recognition without nomination. The nation only sees and hears what people ion each of its areas bring to its attention.

The online link to making nominations is given at the foot of this article.

The Scottish Education Awards 2010 are open to all publicly funded schools, including secondary, primary, nursery and special schools.  There are also categories that recognise the contributions of teachers, headteachers and support staff.

There are 15 nomination categories:

• Health and Wellbeing Award
• Getting Scotland Active Award
• Literacy and Numeracy Across Learning Award
• Enterprise and Employability Across Learning Award (Primary and Early Years)
• Enterprise and Employability Across Learning Award (Secondary)
• Entrepreneurial Learning Award
• Aiming High Award
• Sustainable Schools Award
• Global Citizenship Award
• Learning through Technology Award
• Educational Supporter of the Year
• Probationary Teacher of the Year
• Teacher of the Year
• Headteacher of the Year
• Lifetime Achievement

All nominations must be received no later than March 5 2010.

A specially selected panel of judges will then choose finalists in each category.  Judges will visit each of the finalists during the judging process before deciding on a winner for each category.

Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony in Glasgow on 18th June 2010.

Visit the Scottish Education Awards website for further information and to make a nomination.