The National School Awards Returns

The National Schools Awards 2022 took place on 1st December at the House of Lords in London and brought together over 250 School and MAT leaders alongside frontline practitioners to celebrate and reward the amazing work across the education sector over the past year.

Organised by the Institute of School Business Leadership (ISBL) and the Schools & Academies Show and sponsored by Reed’s education division, the ceremony included eight prestigious award categories, including:

  1. School Business Leader of the Year

  2. Leadership Team of the Year – Sponsored by The Education People

  3. Estates Management of the Year

  4. School of the Year

  5. EdTech Innovation of the Year – Sponsored by Bedrock Learning

  6. MAT of the Year – Sponsored by Renaissance Learning

  7. Governor of the Year

  8. School Resource Management of the Year – Sponsored by Capita and Entrust

As the sector continues its journey towards recovery from the pandemic as well as ongoing funding and recruitment challenges, the National Schools Awards aims to celebrate and recognise excellence in the sector and reward both individual educators as well as teams and schools for their unbelievable achievements and efforts in uncertain times.

The evening saw a keynote welcome speech from Baroness Barran, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the School System, who congratulated the sector for their exceptional leadership and innovation during what has been an extremely difficult period and hoped the additional funding announced would help to ease some of these pressures. She ended her address by saying, “You are the experts and we need to give you the free reign to what you do so well for the benefit of our pupils.”

Other speakers included Gavin Beart, Managing Director, Reed Education, who stated:

“We’re delighted to have been able to support such a prestigious event in the education calendar. Teachers, teaching assistants, SEND specialists, receptionists, governors – everyone has an important role to play in educating our future generations, and those roles are vital, and should be rewarded.

“The industry continues to strive to recover from the challenges of the pandemic, but tonight some fantastic people were recognised for their response to those challenges, and their outstanding commitment and dedication to the sector – something that must be done more often.”

The ceremony took place at the iconic House of Lords in central London and the backdrop of such an impactful venue, highlighted the importance of celebrating the education sector as a whole.

Winners on the evening included:

  1. Claire Brand, South Somerset Partnership School – School Business Leader of the Year

  2. Sharples School – Leadership Team of the Year

  3. Georgina Stone, The Ashcombe School – Estates Management of the Year

  4. Gill Cowley, Our Lady Queen of Peace Primary School – Governor of the Year

  5. Discovery Trust – School Resource Management of the Year

  6. Stone Soup Academy – EdTech Innovation of the Year

  7. Consilium Academies – MAT of the Year

  8. Springfield School – School of the Year

With almost 200 nominations across the eight categories, the shortlisted nominees and eventual winners had stiff competition, and all showed great commitment to their School and pupils. The ceremony host for the evening; Stephen Morales, Chief Executive, Institute of School Business Leadership stated:

“I particularly look forward to this event as it brings together the three important pillars of school leadership: pedagogy, business and governance. This leadership triumvirate is the basis of a stable school structures. Just like a three-legged stool – shorten one leg and the stool becomes wobbly, remove a leg and the stool falls over.

Given that I have spent much of my career advocating for more joined up leadership in our system its very encouraging to see school business leaders, headteachers and governors in the same room sharing each other’s successes.”

The National Schools Awards will be returning in 2023 to once again celebrate and reward those in education and we will once again have an expert panel of judges to ensure a thorough and rigorous judging process.

To find out more about our sponsors – https://nationalschoolsawards.co.uk/sponsors/

Nominations for the National Schools Awards 2023 will be opening in February 2023, so please make sure to nominate a colleague or your school and we look forward to seeing everyone again next year.

Contact us directly via our website – https://nationalschoolsawards.co.uk/contact-us/