Teacher – Love Barrow Awards

Teacher of the Year 2017 Finalist – Laura Godbold

January 5, 2017 Love Barrow Admin

Laura Godbold of Laurus Consultancy has made it to the final three in the teacher category for helping under privilege children in the furness area who are struggling in school and education and also helping children with special needs who are deemed as “unteachable”.

Laura Godbold decided to set up her own consultancy to work with children and young people who may be experiencing issues at home, learning difficulties and those that don’t fit into the mould of mainstream education. She helps autistic and vulnerable children and always succeeds in getting them through exams and other difficult times as well as helping children and teenagers with confidence issues and self-belief.

Laura has helped her students gain confidence and independence and helped them work towards qualifications. She works with young people with severe dyslexia and all the parents have commented on the difference that she has made to their children’s life.

Laura will go above and beyond just teaching to be able to work with her students. What makes her different is that she places no focus on learning difficulties, special needs or barriers she will just push and get her students to be the best they can be, the change in her students is incredible.

She is an advocate for young people experiencing domestic violence and runs free anti bullying workshops around Cumbria, to raise awareness and so young people can come for advice. She also has been raising money for De Paul Nightstop for homeless teens and is developing confidence courses for younger children and teenagers,

Her students parents say “There is no limit to how far laura will go to get the best out of each individual including supporting charities/organising charity events and the hours she puts in to her teaching.”

TO VOTE FOR LAURA IN THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD

TEXT LBA12 to 82055

With thanks to Blake Henderson Ltd for sponsoring this award

Each text vote costs your normal network text message charge.

One free vote may be made online by visiting www.lovebarrowawards.co.uk/peopleschoice

Voting closes at 6.00pm on the Sunday 19th February 2017. Any votes received after then may be charged but will not be counted.

The winner will be announced at The Love Barrow Awards on Friday 10th March 2017 and will be announced via Facebook and Twitter also.

Teacher of the Year 2017 Finalist – Caroline Vernon

January 5, 2017 Love Barrow Admin

Caroline Vernon has been put through to the final three for the dedication she shows to her school its children and hte wider community in her role as HeadTeacher at Victoria Academy in Barrow.

Caroline is the Headteacher at Victoria Junior School, Barrow. The school has recently transitioned into an academy under the guidance of Caroline, who is well loved by her pupils and has a strong team working beside her to to help her achieve her goals and ambitions for the school and the surrounding community.

Caroline has helped set up many activities that her pupils take part in including The Healthy living and lifestyle project for Barrow which was about helping young children to understand the importance of eating healthy and looking after themselves and the Step Up To Serve programme which sees many of hte school pupils being accepted as part of the #iwill programme, where they travel to London as part of a larger project.

Caroline is always striving for her staff and pupils to be the best that they can be, always available to sit and chat about any problems or listen to new ideas.

As well as inside the school, Caroline is a big advocate for the community and the wider area becoming a leading figure nationally in student led research and critical skills. The work carried out at the school helped to shape the national curriculum for primary schools and has been done in partnership with the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA).

A spokesperson for QCA describes how they were able to “… seize upon work … observed in Victoria Juniors (to) help develop work on a national scale.” Similarly OFSTED hailed this work at the school as outstanding. Caroline has been working alongside other Barrow and Cumbrian head teachers during this work and has also begun to speak at national conferences describing the work around student led research and critical skills.

Caroline has led on the local Furness Learning Transition Project exploring issues around young people’s transition from primary to secondary school. Caroline has linked this work with Lancaster University. Caroline’s work has attracted further national attention including interest from the Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education and the University of Wolverhampton.

In 2013. Caroline has visited the House of Commons to talk about her work as one of the founders of Furness Education and Skills Partnership, first in April 2013 to speak to members of the Education Select Committee and secondly in June 2013 to attend a launch of a new initiative about bridging the gap between education and industry.

One of the pupils at her school says “Mrs Vernon is friendly and listens to you, she is fair but firm and encourages you to be your best and to try different things, she treats everyone the same, and has helped me so much with my confidence and to achieve what I have and without her support I don’t think I could have done it. I owe her a lot.”

TO VOTE FOR CAROLINE IN THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD

TEXT LBA11 to 82055

With thanks to Blake Henderson Ltd for sponsoring this award

Each text vote costs your normal network text message charge.

One free vote may be made online by visiting www.lovebarrowawards.co.uk/peopleschoice

Voting closes at 6.00pm on the Sunday 19th February 2017. Any votes received after then may be charged but will not be counted.

The winner will be announced at The Love Barrow Awards on Friday 10th March 2017 and will be announced via Facebook and Twitter also.

Teacher of the Year 2017 Finalist – Alison Barnes

January 5, 2017 Love Barrow Admin

Alison Barnes has made it to the final three for the dedications and inspiration she shows daily in her job in Beaumont College, a specialists college based in Barrow-in-Furness.

Alison Barnes is the lead person for a Specialists College based at Barrow Sixth Form, Barrow-in-Furness. The college is for young people with disabilities from the ages of 18 plus.

Most young people with disabilities that leave education find it hard to either find paid work or a place that is more suited for their needs, Beaumont College has been running for 2 years and has made a big difference to many young peoples lives in that they help them step into the wider community in meaningful work placements.

The young people all have their own independent member of staff to help them but rather than teaching young people in traditional classroom environment, they get them out in the community and also arrange work placements such as at Tesco and local farms.

Alison works with people with learning/physical disabilities and works incredible hard to make a person centred teaching approach which means the young people get to feel their worth in society, she gets to know every young person she works with and inspires them to reach high in life. Alison helps to provide educational needs building students confidence, speech, numeracy, social interaction and help them build relationships with outside agencies and also facilitates activities with a whole range of local, regional and national organisations such as Sea View Riding Centre, Outdoor Education providers, physical activities, cooking, using Leonard Cheshire in Walneys accessible kitchen, to name just a few.

The hours Alison works are long but she shows total dedication to both the students and support workers, is an advocate for helping fill the gap in activities for disabled teenagers and is friendly, warm, understanding, supporting and sees the potential in everyone.

Alisons collgues and parents of students say “She builds each students confidence and help them overcome the stigma of being disabled it is very hard for me to say how dedicated and inspirational Alison is, I feel you only have to meet this lady once and you would soon realise the passion, care and without doubt 100 percent commitment to making a difference to these young peoples lives.”

TO VOTE FOR ALISON IN THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD

TEXT LBA10 to 82055

With thanks to Blake Henderson Ltd for sponsoring this award

Each text vote costs your normal network text message charge.

One free vote may be made online by visiting www.lovebarrowawards.co.uk/peopleschoice

Voting closes at 6.00pm on the Sunday 19th February 2017. Any votes received after then may be charged but will not be counted.

The winner will be announced at The Love Barrow Awards on Friday 10th March 2017 and will be announced via Facebook and Twitter also.