To honour this year’s National Teaching Award regional winners, a prestigious parliamentary reception was held in Westminster during the afternoon of Tuesday 24th June. Hosted by Reading West MP, Alok Sharma, the event celebrated the many successes and achievements of the teaching and support staff who were all Silver Award winners in 2014.
Making the journey to London from saltash.net community school was teacher of Maths and integrated Learning, Scott Wieprecht, accompanied by headteacher, Isobel Bryce. In addition to the reception held in the Members’ Dining Room, Mr Wieprecht and Mrs Bryce were given the opportunity to visit other places of interest within the Houses of Parliament, thanks to the hospitality of local MP, Sheryll Murray. Mrs Murray enabled her guests to view both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, as well as Westminster Hall and Chapel and the Members’ terrace.
Speaking at the end of a very exciting day, Mr Wieprecht said, ‘I can honestly say being able to visit the House of Commons was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. It was a privilege to be able to discuss all the amazing work we do at saltash.net with other teachers from around the country. For me the award has always been testament to the wonderful young people we have at our school and it’s so good that this is once again recognised on this national level.
As a maths teacher, the figures always excite me, and to know that the work that we’ve been doing at saltash.net managed to fend off 22,000 applications to reach the final 55 awards just shows what an incredible and life changing set of opportunities are available to our students.
I would like to thank all the students at the school for their support, and for nominating me for the award, in the first place, as well as all the other colleagues who have helped me along the way, including Mr Rowe, Mr Buckley and a huge number of others. I’d especially like to thank Mrs Bryce, for not only giving the OffPerts and myself the chance to attend these events, but also for looking after me on my “big day out in London”!’