A HEADTEACHER from Kidderminster has been honoured with prestigious UK teaching award.

Rebecca Garratt, headteacher at Wyre Forest School has won a silver award in the Pearson National Teaching Awards.

She has been honoured with the accolade in the lockdown hero for learner and community support category for her outstanding commitment to changing the lives of the children she works with every day.

Ms Garratt has now been shortlisted to win one of 15 gold awards later this year, in a programme which will be broadcast on the BBC.

The Silver Award winners are being honoured as part of the wider celebrations for ‘Thank a Teacher Day’, a national campaign to honour and recognise school staff for their incredible work.

Sir Michael Morpurgo, author and former children’s laureate, and president of the Teaching Awards Trust, said: “Thank a Teacher Day gives us all a chance - children, families, all of us - to pay tribute to those wonderful educators who change more lives than they will ever know.

"Today we say thank you to the teachers who have helped our young people navigate these most difficult of times, and who will continue to inspire countless young minds over the coming years.”

Sharon Hague, senior vice president of schools at Pearson UK, said: “After a year like no other we want to take today to say thank you to all the incredible school staff who have kept children and young people learning despite unprecedented challenges.

"We hope the celebrations today show how much you are appreciated, and that your hard work has not gone unnoticed nor unrecognised.”

The Pearson National Teaching Awards is an annual celebration of excellence in education, founded in 1998.