National Teaching Awards 2004

The Innovation Unit Award for Innovation in Education

Our congratulations go to Dr Baldev Singh who won The Innovation Unit's Award for Innovation in Education.

He is the first winner of an award sponsored by The Innovation Unit.

Formerly a cancer researcher who used to teach medical students at Bristol University, Baldev became a newly qualified biology teacher in 1998 at John Cabot School in Bristol. Here he exploited his ICT skills first in biology teaching and then in citizenship courses. He used his research background to try out new materials and techniques, including working on projects that created virtual links between students in Bristol and Alexandra, a township outside Johannesburg, and on teacher-training projects in Cairo.

To find out about the other National Winners go to the National Winners page.

Baldev's Life since the Teaching Awards

Baldev has written an article for us about his experiences since winning The Innovation Unit's Award for Innovation in Education.

Read his article here.

He has also taken part in an Innovation Community Hotseat on Effective Practice with ICT - you can download a summary of the key points here.

top

British Council/Teaching Awards Exchange

The second part of the British Council/Teaching Awards exchange took place in March 2005. Teachers from the Limpopo and Gauteng provinces in South Africa were involved in the exchange following the initial trip, in which winners of the Award for School and Community Involvement visited schools in South Africa to build sustainable links with teachers and schools back in November 2004.

The South African teachers have spent two days in Winners' schools to observe and teach lessons and to look at issues such as continuing professional development, school based teacher training, citizenship, ICT and how to deal with non attendance. The rest of their time in the UK has included meeting representatives from the former DfES - including a meeting with Ruth Kelly, former Secretary of State for Education - and visiting other schools. The Teaching Awards Trust and the British Council also hosted a dinner in honour of the South African teachers, which was attended by Lord Puttnam CBE, Chair of the Teaching Awards Trust.

top