New College Pontefract’s senior team have won a silver Pearson National Teaching Award for FE Team of the Year. The award reflects the success that the leadership team have had over the past five years, with the expansion of the college, the creation of two sister colleges and the consistent outstanding success rates of all students, which have put the college in the top five of the DfE’s national tables for five years.
Hundreds of nominations are received for the NTAs every year, so becoming a silver winner is an indicator of the scale of the senior team’s success. The final gold winner of the award is chosen from amongst the silver winners, and will be announced in a televised awards ceremony on BBC2 in October.
“We are delighted to receive the Silver Award from the NTA,” said Richard Fletcher, CEO of the New Collaborative Learning Trust, the college’s trust. “It reflects not just the hard work and long-term planning of the senior team, but the dedication of all the staff at New College. It is their continued commitment which provides our young people with an exceptional post-16 education, making New College Pontefract consistently one of the country’s best performing sixth form colleges in the country.”
The senior team at New College Pontefract now run two other sixth form colleges, New College Bradford and New College Doncaster, with several senior leaders moving from Pontefract over the past three years. This means that the FE Team of the Year is effectively an award for the senior leadership of the whole trust, across three sites.
“It is very gratifying to have the success of the senior team across the trust recognised by this award,” said Richard. “The successful strategies we developed in Pontefract are now helping improve the life chances of young people across the Yorkshire region.”
Michael Morpurgo, celebrated author and former Children’s Laureate, and President of the Teaching Awards Trust, said: “Over the past year, we have, all of us, come to appreciate and respect the value of teachers. They have so often been taken for granted. Not anymore. Parents know now what it takes to teach, and teach well, and how much commitment, dedication and enthusiasm and knowledge and understanding, yes – and patience.
“Children know it too, if they didn’t before. So many missed their teachers as well as their friends. We all honour them today. Let’s now praise them, wish them well and above all, thank them.”
