Award winner Miss Pippa Wadey is in the Pearson National Teaching Awards finals


Mayor of Wandsworth, Councillor Jane Cooper, Miss Pippa Wadey and Mr James Healey of Pearson

A Putney High School teacher is one of the UK finalists of The Pearson National Teaching Awards. Miss Pippa Wadey has also won a Silver Award in what is widely considered the UK’s “Oscars for Teachers”, nominated in the Teacher of the Year in a Secondary School category.

The Teaching Awards were set up by Lord David Puttnam in 1998 to celebrate and recognise excellence in education. The awards recognise teaching staff from around the country for their inspirational teaching and for the amazing contributions they can have on the lives of the young people that they teach.

Miss Wadey, Director of Learning, Research and Outreach and Teacher of Religious Studies, will go on to the UK final in October at an event which will be televised by the BBC. It is there that the winners of 13 Gold Awards will be announced.

Miss Wadey joined Putney High School in September 2015 and since then has according to the school, constantly strived to build fresh and creative methods into her teaching. Her ground-breaking approach to lessons and co-curricular learning inspires students to be curious and intellectually ambitious in their thinking. Her initiatives include Harkness Table discussions, Philosophy “Hot Topics” Talks, an award-winning “Outstanding Outcomes” project, Putney Ideas Exchange (PIE) evening lecture programme and leadership of the school’s action research programme on the Science of Learning, looking at the development and workings of the brain and how these can impact pupils’ learning. Miss Wadey work has led to a 2019 TES award nomination for the school (for strategic innovation). She will be speaking at the Festival of Education at Wellington College on Friday 21 June. Miss Wadey told this website: “I feel extremely honoured to even be part of the group of teachers nominated for this category. I’m lucky enough to teach the most amazing group of students and be supported by a brilliant group of colleagues, so this award is just as much theirs as it is mine."

This year, Putney High School GDST also has three teachers who have been awarded Certificates of Excellence in the following categories:
Outstanding New Teacher of the Year - Miss Hannah Lovell (Biology Teacher)
Excellence in Special Needs Teaching - Ms Justyna Sokolowska (Head of Learning Enrichment)
Teacher of the Year in a Primary School - Mrs Ena Burgess (Junior School Director of Music).

Hannah Lovell, Pippa Wadey and Justyna Sokolowska with Putney High School girls having received their awards at Sports Day at Wimbledon Park Athletics Track.

Headmistress, Suzie Longstaff, pictured below, said, “The strength of any school lies in the quality of its teaching and we know how lucky we are to have inspirational staff who always go the extra mile for their pupils. Pippa’s enthusiasm and wonderful thirst for learning are truly contagious. We are extremely proud of her.”

June 20, 2019