ART teacher Colin Davies was left speechless when a Standard reporter burst into his classroom to surprise him with an award.
The head of art at Sir William Romney’s in Tetbury won our Teacher of the Year trophy competition with 255 votes.
Mr Davies’ year eight art class on Tuesday was interrupted by Standard reporter Ann Yip, photographer Steve Richards, head teacher Steve MacKay and three other teachers, to present him with the trophy.
A dumbfounded Mr Davies said: “Wow, that’s amazing. Am I supposed to come up with a speech now?”
Headteacher Mr MacKay congratulated Mr Davies, saying: "We are a small school and to be nominated in the first place is a real honour.
"I've known Mr Davies for eight years. He's been an exceptional teacher and you're really lucky to have him.
"I know many of you are going to be picking the subject at GCSE because of your art teacher and that says it all."
Mr Davies, 36, from Gloucester, has been teaching for nearly 12 years at the 11-16 school where he landed his first teaching post and where he was trained.
He also leads the design and technology, and music departments as faculty head.
He told the Standard: "Some students think they are either good at art or not.
"But if that was the case, there would be no point in being an art teacher. I give students confidence so they will give things a go.
"They respond to praise and that is an important factor of teaching, showing them that they can produce amazing work.
"Sir William Romney's is such a small school in Tetbury so it has a lively community.
"You know everybody and you get to learn what motivates students, that is something bigger schools perhaps miss out on.
"The school has also been judged 'good' by Ofsted and all of the teachers have contributed towards that."
(Teacher Colin Davies gets a high five from one of his year eight pupils)
The percentage of GCSE Art students getting A* to C grades at Sir William Romney's has been 90 per cent or over for the last five years.
Runner-up was Hannah Clark from Cirencester College with 197 votes.
We would also like to say well done to our finalists:
- Matt Jones of North Cerney Primary
- Sean Price of Westonbirt Prep School
- Nicola Kendall of Westonbirt School
- Duncan Walthew of Cirencester College
- Jonathan Torbitt of Rendcomb College
- Julia Gibson of Sir William Romney’s School
- Amanda Sanders of Stratton School
- and Shirley Bond of Stratton School.
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