Meet Jack Bream, one of Britain’s best teachers.
Jack has won a Silver Award in the Teacher of the Year in a Secondary School category for her outstanding commitment to changing the lives of the children they work with every day.
She teaches English at Huntington School, where her colleagues described her as “an exceptional teacher and human being”.
She won the award – one of only 76 given out to thousands of nominated teachers – for creating an utterly safe learning environment which allows students to learn, and to want to learn.
As well as inspiring colleagues, her students have secured consistently excellent results under her teaching.
Jack is now in the running for one of just 14 Gold Awards later in the year, in a programme which will be broadcast on the BBC.
This is an opportunity to celebrate the exceptional school staff who have worked wonders during an incredibly challenging time for educators across the country.
Integrity, tolerance, kindness
The Pearson National Teaching Awards is an annual celebration of exceptional teachers, founded in 1998 by Lord Puttnam to recognise the life-changing impact an inspirational teacher can have on the lives of the young people they work with.
Head teacher at Huntington School John Tomsett said: “In 17 years of secondary school headship, I have never made a nomination; Jack is my exception because she is a remarkable teacher.
“I am not alone in thinking this. John McGee, one of Jack’s previous headteachers, says, ‘in 37 years of teaching she is the most impressive colleague I have worked with’.
“We work in a profession where sometimes it is the ones who shout the loudest and proclaim their brilliance that are labelled as superlative.
“Jack Bream epitomises all that we should aspire to as teachers: integrity, tolerance, kindness, professionalism and an unrelenting belief in our pupils.
“She represents a core of teachers who deliver great lessons, day-in, day-out; week-in, week-out; year-in, year-out, without craving praise and publicity.
“It has been difficult to persuade Jack that we should pursue this nomination, but her success is thoroughly deserved.
“As one of her Year 8 students said, ‘I aspire to be like her when I’m older… she is such an amazing teacher, and an amazing person, inside and out’.”