Two Yorkshire schools have been recognised at the Tes Schools Awards, one of the biggest nights in the UK education calendar which was held on Friday 25th June.
Hannah Tombling, from Diamond Wood Community Academy in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire won the environment champion of the year award. Meanwhile, Malton School in North Yorkshire won the maths team of the year award.
Judges commended nursery teacher Hannah Tombling’s work at Diamond Wood Community Academy for the inspirational way she has helped pupils to nurture the natural environment.
The school serves an area of significant disadvantage. It has developed school gardens to grow food during the pandemic, sending parcels home using food cultivated on site and celebrating Eid with pupils by sharing dips made with mint grown on the school grounds.
Ms Tombling’s passion for protecting the environment and her personal ethos of “making the world a better place, one step at a time” is an inspiration for pupils, and she nurtures the youngest children to appreciate the natural world around them.
She founded the school’s eco-council in 2015, secured the school’s Eco-Schools bronze award in October 2015, its silver award in January 2016 and its first Eco-Schools green flag award in November 2017. The school was awarded a second green flag in December 2019.
Hannah Tombling from Diamond Wood Community Academy in Dewsbury said:
“I’m absolutely over the moon. I have been championing environmental initiatives since I was an NQT, and I truly believe that it is by giving the kids a voice on this topic that we can make positive long term change”.
The number of pupils taking A-Level maths has increased by more than 300 per cent at Malton School, North Yorkshire. And it’s no surprise when you look at the passion and hard work of staff in the maths department.
They have succeeded in raising the aspirations of all students and are always seeking ways to support their skills, including running a very popular maths club after school each week.
The department marks the success of students in assemblies, at celebration evenings and using the school’s social media channels.
One particular success has been the implementation of the Build a Mathematician programme in key stage 3 to help students develop a secure base of understanding.
The staff encourage a metacognitive approach to learning, where students have a clear understanding of their strengths and areas for development. But, crucially, they know how to improve and are not afraid to practise their maths skills to make this happen.
Tes judge Jemma Sherwood said: “Clearly a passionate team, they have demonstrated consistent improvements in not only attainment but take-up at key stage 5 and engagement in extracurricular maths. It was a pleasure to learn about this maths team.”
Malton School’s Head of Maths James Muir said:
“This award recognises the incredible hard work and dedication of the whole Maths team here at Malton. It rewards the determination to establish such a strong path for maths and the all the extra hard work the team has put in this year.”
Chief judge of the Tes Schools Awards and Editor of Tes magazine Jon Severs said:
“The Tes Schools Awards are the Oscars of education, recognising and celebrating everything that’s great about our schools and school staff. It is more important this year than ever before to celebrate the fantastic work schools do, because in the past 12 months they have gone above and beyond to ensure pupils were able to be educated and be kept safe in extraordinary circumstances. We were inundated with entries that demonstrated just how hard the pandemic made the work of schools, and just how amazing the response from staff has been. Congratulations to the winning schools and thank you to all school staff who do such vital work every day.”
The Tes Schools Awards were held virtually to comply with coronavirus regulations. In previous years the awards ceremony has been held at the Grosvenor Hotel, on London’s Park Lane.
For the full list of winners of the Tes Schools Awards, visit https://www.tes.com/news/tes-schools-awards-2021-winners-list-full
