Become a fan of the Scottish Education Awards on Facebook
Follow the Scottish Education Awards on Twitter
Having already excelled in her teacher training Susan Ward arrived at Juniper Green Primary School with many new ideas and a range of excellent skills in learning and teaching.
Susan has a great empathy for young children and has created a classroom where each child knows that they are known and cared for as an individual. This is shown not only by the compassion shown by Susan but by the way in which she has encouraged her class to support and ‘build-up’ each other. This has been done in a variety of ways from a Build-up Wall where children record the nice things they have done for each other to the use of My Whiskers, a cuddly bunny who is there for any child who needs a hug.
Susan is at the forefront of a personal learning planning pilot within the cluster where she is helping children develop greater awareness of their own learning. Susan is described as an exceptional asset to the school. On one memorable occasion Susan’s class finished some personal and social development work on feelings and emotions by singing and dancing to a version of James Brown’s ‘I feel good’.
Congratulations to Susan, who has also won the title of outstanding new teacher of the year at the The Teaching Awards. She was awarded with a gold Plato trophy at a ceremony in London on Sunday.
The Teaching Awards were set up by Lord Puttnam in 1998 and are open to every school in the UK.
Listen to a recording of Susan's presentation from the Scottish Learning Festival on the subject of Making Learning Fun.
The Scottish Education Awards are managed by
In association with Learning and Teaching Scotland