Kent Teacher of the Year Awards - May 2024

Kent Teacher of The Year Awards

This year, Kent-Teach, and our colleagues in HR Connect and StaffCareServices, are incredibly proud to be sponsoring categories for Kent Teacher of The Year. This annual event is held to recognise the hard work and impact of staff working in schools across Kent and it has been a privilege to be a part of the judging process.

Nominations were made by colleagues, parents and students and choosing from the nominations was no easy feat – there were so many heartfelt and compelling nominations for a range of different reasons. Winners were invited to a special awards dinner and received framed certificates with the overall winner of the category taking home a trophy to commemorate the impact they have made. Nominees did not know what award they had received until the night and had the opportunity to celebrate their amazing achievements with friends, families and colleagues.

This year, Kent-Teach sponsored Secondary School Teacher of the Year. We work closely with schools to ensure we have high-quality teaching staff in our Kent schools and being able to see the impact that these individuals have had on young people and their families and other professionals shows how valuable the teaching profession is. 

Here are what some of the winners had to say:

" I am really grateful and goes down to our Victory students - they're absolutely amazing to work with, they're some of the most wonderful people I have met in this world. What our school do to help our young people is amazing, especially what the trust do on a bigger level. Teachers do put a lot of work in and I think it is so important to value the work that teachers do. I am so grateful to everybody - thank you."

Tejpal Singh Bajwa, The Victory Academy, Overall Winner Science Teacher of the Year

"I am just overwhelmed and humbled to be here with such amazing professionals who are all working to support the children in the Kent area. It is such a fantastic event and we have so much we can learn from each other."

Claire Wallis, The North School, Overall Winner of Secondary School Teacher of the Year.

"Fantastic evening, I am really proud to have been able to come up and been able to receive this award tonight."

David Jarvis, The Canterbury Primary School, Canterbury District Senior Leadership Team Member of the Year

"Overwhelmed. Very overwhelmed. Thank you to my wonderful team - parents, staff, children. I am very humbled."

Michelle Smith, Headteacher of the Victory Academy, Kent and Medway Overall Head Teacher of the Year.

Nominations for next year will open soon so keep an eye on the SEK page for more information about nominating teachers, support staff and colleagues.

The event is carefully curated and run by Social Enterprise Kent (SEK) who will be accepting nominations soon for the Kent Teacher of the Year Awards 2025 very shortly.

If you are interested in getting into teaching, see our Routes into Teaching page. To find out more about how to develop your teaching career, see our Career Development Tool.