Who's on the shortlist for an EB Award 2019?

Held at the Grange Hotel, London, on 4 July, the Education Business Awards showcase the effort and dedication of teachers, school management and support staff in 24 categories. Presenting the 2019 Education Business Awards is television and radio presenter Angellica Bell, best known for her work on CBBC and The One Show.

Three Outstanding Progress awards (Primary, Secondary and Independent) are presented to schools which have achieved sustained success in both their exam results and in the running of the school.

Last years independent sector winner, Bromley High School, was rightly proud of its GCSE results – the best in the history of the school with 49 per cent A* and 77 per cent A*/A grades. Some examples of the exceptional performance of its academic departments are the Royal Geographical Society’s Excellence Award and the Junior School winning first prize in the Primary Science Association’s National Practical Challenge Competition for KS1.

Among those featured on this years’ shortlist are Seaton House School in Sutton, which was recently named as Prep School of the Year by the Sunday Times, and Dunnator School in Surrey, which is now part of United Learning and has demonstrated an exceptional turnaround since facing closure in 2014.

In the Secondary school sector, Acklam Grange in Middlesbrough picked up last years’ Outstanding Progress Award after being designated a National Teaching School and providing support to over 40 schools in the region and beyond.

Sponsored by the Schools Advisory Service, shortlisted this year are Spalding Academy in Lincolnshire, which has witnessed a remarkable turnaround in fortunes since 2016, and Pleckgate High School, Blackburn, which has been hailed a ‘beacon of success’ by the Department for Education.

On the shortlist for this year’s Outstanding Progress Award for the Primary Sector, which is sponsored byFun and Active Playgrounds Ltd, Queen’s Park School in London takes a creative approach to curriculum design. The progress and achievements of its pupils is among the highest performing schools in Westminster. Also featured is Kirton Primary in Lincolnshire, which serves a community of high deprivation but has been placed in the top three precent nationally at Key Stages 1 and 2 due to its recent progress in English, reading and mathematics.

The vital work the schools undertake to further the progress of the communities in which they serve is recognised in the Community Award, one of the most highly entered categories. Last year, Eastbourne College in East Sussex scooped the award after setting up the The Eastbourne Schools Partnership (ESP), which works to provide community, educational and sporting activities involving pupils, staff and the general public. ESP now comprises 12 Presenting the 2019 EB Awards is television and radio presenter Angellica Bell, known for her work on CBBC and The One Show schools and colleges and accounts for 14,000 children in the surrounding area.

This year’s shortlist includes New College Leicester, which is the busiest school in the country for community sport with some 2,500 local people using its facilities each week. Also on the shortlist, The Hayling College welcomes young people who are known to the police into the Heart of Hayling, a new Boxing academy which now has over 200 participants on its books.

Hitting the headlines recently, an estimated 1.5 million youngsters across the world have taken part in Climate Change protests. The Environmental Practice Award recognises school projects that can demonstrate a benefit to the environment and the environmental education of its pupils. Last year’s winner, Hever Church of England Aided Primary School, is fully powered by electricity, removing the need for a gas supply. The annual electricity consumption for is around 30kWh per m2 per annum as opposed to 120kWh for a traditionally built alternative.

Featuring on this year’s shortlist is Putney High School in London, which has run two innovative projects in the last year including a four month Biophilic Classroom study. This demonstrated how, by incorporating direct or indirect elements of nature into the classroom, you can improve wellbeing, increase creativity and productivity. Also making the Environmental Practice shortlist is Denton Community Primary School in Newhaven, which closed the road outside the school to improve air quality and safety outside the school gates as part of the ’School Streets’ initiative, a competition to promote cycling, walking and scooting to school.

Sponsored by sponsored by Westminster Abbey, The Educational Visits Award features educational establishments that can demonstrate a commitment to providing students with a range of subject specific educational visits in order to further their learning experience. Last year, The Marine Academy in Devon picked up the title with pupils being provided with a huge range of subject specific educational visits, all of which are fully funded by the Academy at no cost to parents/carers. Children from Year 5 were provided with the opportunity for a once in a lifetime trip to Lapland. The Academy worked with experienced polar explorers to plan and fundraise for the trip, which combined interactive workshops with outdoor learning and confidence building.

This year’s shortlist includes Ernesettle Community School in Devon, which has a long history a engaging pupils in creative, challenging education visits, Prudhoe Community High School, which in summer 2018 provided pupils with an experience of a lifetime on an 11 day trip to India, and The Weald Community School and Sixth Form, which took 16 Year 10 students on a cultural trip to China.

Sponsored by Exa Education, the ICT facility Award is presented to schools that have made outstanding progress in the provision of a first class environment for the teaching of ICT and related subjects. Leighton Park School, last year’s winner, has been awarded as a Centre of Excellence for Computer Science and been able to disseminate support and guidance through its vast and varied experiences that it provides young people, both within the school and the wider Thames Valley Community through its whole school iSTEM+ initiative. This has included trips to leading IT organisations such as Google, Microsoft and Cisco, empirical academic research all of which has been shared with many primary and secondary schools across the UK and Europe.

Making the shortlist this year is Aberdour School in Surrey, which has has invested millions in re-designing its curriculum and learning practices, and building state-of-theart premises that embed technology in all aspects of school life.

The ICT Innovation Award, sponsored by Fujitsu company PFU, is for schools which can demonstrate innovation in their approach to teaching and deploying Information and Communication technologies.

Last year’s winner, Open Academy Norwich, ran the ‘Project Refurb Club’, which involved students refurbishing old PCs to distribute throughout the local community, a cause close to the hearts of both students and staff. The idea was devised by students in Years 7, 8 and 9 and championed by students in Years 10 and 11, who study Creative Media and Computer Science. This was achieved by integrating the project units. ‘Project Refurb’ is currently managed by ‘Digital Ambassadors’ in Years 7 to 13, whose roles are diverse and include mentors who teach at ‘Codeclub’ an afterschool club to learn how to programme.

Featuring on this year’s shortlist is the Holy Name School in Pembrokeshire, which were early adopters of the Welsh Government’s Hwb digital platform and have been instrumental in the development of pupil and staff digital skills. The school has worked with more than 20 schools in its local authority, sharing good practice. The Tiffin School in Surrey has been shortlisted for the work of its ICT manager Jamie Frost in furthering Maths education through www.drfrostmaths.com. The website offers an excellent collection of free teaching resources, videos, and a bank of exam questions. Used by over 2000 schools internationally, the teaching resources have been downloaded over 1.5 million times.

The SEN Provision Award is presented to an SEN Establishment that can demonstrate an increase in the quality of care and education services provided to students with special educational needs. A record amount of entries this year has produced a highly competitive shortlist, including Gilbrook Primary School in Wirral, which is rightly proud of its outdoor learning programme. This supports primary age children with social, emotional and mental health issues and features a dedicated land based learning area, where children can learn woodcraft, cooking over a fire pit, tracking and photographing animals, gardening skills and many other activities.

Last year’s winner of the SEN Inclusion Award, Ernesettle Community School, prides itself on an inclusive ethos where every teacher is a teacher of SEND. Rigorous systems for tracking children’s progress are managed by a highly dedicated team and strong relationships with other supportive agencies to foster an environment where children who have had difficulty accessing a mainstream environment are able to thrive.

This year’s shortlist includes Marine Academy Primary, which has achieved the ‘Good Diabetes Care in School’ Award from Diabetes UK, continues to be a Makaton Friendly Organisation and has a full time speech and language therapist.

Another hotly contested category is the STEM Award. Last year, this was presented to Bromley High School in Kent, which organises a biennial trips to CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, in Switzerland and has also worked with a grant from HSBC to provide robotics equipment. The shortlist this year features Egglescliffe School in Durham, which hosted a series of lectures across an entire school day, including a live Skype Q&A with Dr Andrew Aldrin (son of Buzz Aldrin), lectures from Dr Suzie Imber (Associate Professor in Space Physics), Professor David Southwood (Chair of the UK Space Agency) and Doug Millard (Keeper of Technologies and Engineering of the Science Museum).

The School Building Award showcases what is judged to be the most technically advanced building constructed for the purpose of teaching present and future pupils. On the shortlist this year is St Edmund’s School, Canterbury which has recently completed the first phase is a new 2.5 storey building to provide seven classrooms, mathematics studio, toilets and storage facilities, replacing existing modular classrooms and forms a new public ‘face’ for the school. The disposition of materials is intentionally reflective of the 1858 original Grade II listed Victorian Gothic school building to provide continuity of scale, colour and tone. Also featured is Woodmansterne Secondary School and Sixth Form, a new five form-entry school providing 900 places for pupils aged 11 to 18 years old. Located in the London Borough of Lambeth, sustainability, daylight and ventilation were important considerations in the development of the design to ensure that running costs are minimised and pupils and staff are provided with a bright and well-ventilated working environment.

A new category for 2019 is the Play Space Award. Sponsored by Community Playthings, the award recognises the outdoor playground environment and spaces in nurseries/primary schools where innovative equipment creates opportunities for learning. Featured on the shortlist is Marjory Kinnon School, all age special school for children aged 4-16 years in the London Borough of Hounslow, along with Dell Primary School in Lowestoft, which has completed an outdoor learning area featuring raised beds to grow vegetables, a climbing frame and a road for larger imaginative play. An all-weather sand house and a solar powered water feature complete an innovative play area.

The School Sports Award, sponsored by the Schools Advisory Service, was last year won by Radley College, Abingdon, which features state of the art sports facilities including a new strength and conditioning centre which sits next to an athletics track and Rowing Centre supporting the college’s curriculum.

This year, the shortlist features Lindley Junior School, which offers high quality PE curriculum and provides pupils with the opportunity to take part in both non-competitive and competitive sports. Success has recently been achieved in Boys’ Football, Panathlon, Disability Athletics, Boccia, Orienteering, Tri-Golf, Cricket and Cross Country.

Sponsored by SECOM, the School Security Award recognises efforts to increase security through a combination of increased awareness in staff and pupils and the procurement and installation of additional security measures. This year’s shortlist includes the Moorland School in Lancashire, which has recently installed an access control solution to address the challenge of allowing access throughout the school, whilst maintaining security due to the large number of keys that were necessary. Also featured, Selsted Church of England Primary School in South East Kent has installed perimeter fencing which features good visibility, allowing the school to quickly assess any hazards from beyond the fence line.

Sponsored by Evac + Chair, the Academy Partnership Award is presented to the established specialist academy that can demonstrate benefits to the community through a partnership with a existing establishment. Featuring on the 2019 shortlist, Rawlins Academy in Leicestershire was involved with TARMAC in the completion of a personal enrichment programme to help sixth-form students prepare for the world of work. Located just a few miles from Tarmac’s Mountsorrel Quarry in Leicestershire, the Academy presented their experiences taken from the scheme and skills they developed throughout the process to Tarmac and SkillForce colleagues.

The full shortlists for the 2019 Education Business Awards will be published online at www.ebawards.co.uk

www.ebawards.co.uk

Academy Partnership Award Sponsored by Evac + Chair

Art & Craft Award Sponsored by Kidzania

Community Award

Educational Visits Award Sponsored by Westminster Abbey

Environmental Practice AwardExcellence in Health and Safety Award

ICT Facility Award Sponsored by Exa Education

ICT Innovation Award Sponsored by PFU, a Fujitsu company

Outstanding Progress - Independent School

Outstanding Progress - Primary School Sponsored by Fun and Active Playgrounds Ltd

Outstanding Progress - Secondary School Sponsored by Schools Advisory Service

Parking Management & Travel Planning Award Sponsored by the British Parking Association

Play Space Award Sponsored by Community Playthings

School Building AwardSchool Catering Award

School Finance Award Sponsored by Fathom

School Music Award

School Procurement Award Sponsored by Alan Patient & Co

School Recruitment Award Sponsored by Eteach

School Security Award Sponsored by SECOM Security Systems

SEN Inclusion AwardSEN Provision Award

Sports Award Sponsored by Schools Advisory Service

STEM Award