The Northamptonshire Education Awards once again celebrated the very best of the incredible schools and educators who work so hard to give our children the education they deserve.
At the biggest ceremony in the history of the awards more than 500 people watched Olympian and former badminton World Champion Gail Emms MBE introduce the categories and welcome the sponsors and winners to the stage.
Opening the event, Ben Thomas, Managing Director of All Things Business, the organisers of the Northamptonshire Education Awards, said: “Bringing education and business together means we can collaborate on the skills – technical, academic and personal – that young people need to make a real and valuable contribution to the workplace. If businesses can help our schools and colleges achieve that, then they are investing in the future of the county and the country.
“Working together is what makes communities successful and that’s why nights like this mean so much.”
Wren Spinney School took the SEND Team/School of the Year Award, sponsored by Creating Tomorrow College, for the second year running, while other awards went to IT Champion (sponsored by easipc)Paul Coram from Elizabeth Woodville School; Daniel York (Headteacher of the Year, sponsored by FormFive) and Billing Brook School, which took the Healthy School of the Year Award, sponsored by Proactive Young People.
Paul Hamblin from Tresham College won the Lifetime Achievement Award. Paul has dedicated much his working life to making a difference to young people, working with the unemployed and disadvantaged to break down barriers and change lives for the better.
In 1995, Paul was asked to run The Prince’s Trust (now The King’s Trust) in Wellingborough and over the past 20 years has supported around 1,200 young people into employment, training or education, changing their lives forever.
Paul said: “I have a military background, and I use a lot of discipline training with the young people I work with, and more often than not they deliver. On average, eight out of ten of them will go into full-time employment, education or training after coming to us with no direction and no idea about what they want to do with their lives. Once with us, they show that they have it in them to be the best versions of themselves.
“But I also want to accept this award on behalf of all the other nominees in this category, who have all done so much themselves to deserve this award.”
Hackleton CEVA Primary School, which had been nominated in another awards, finally got the chance to celebrate when it was announced as the Overall School of the Year, sponsored by Apertus Group, for 2025. The overall award is presented each year to a school that, once the judges have finished their deliberations, is considered to have stood out from the rest of the finalists as deserving special recognition.
The judges chose Hackleton Primary, which was shortlisted for a number of awards, because, ‘every child has a chance to shine, happiness and care are in abundance, and the atmosphere is one of kindness and community”.
Afterwards, head of Hackleton CEVA Primary School, Sally Gillam, said: “It’s the first time we’ve been to the awards and we came here not really expecting to win, and we’d had a lovely evening even though we hadn’t actually won an award – until they announced the Overall School of the Year.
“It means the world to us. We’ve got the best staff, best children and best parents, and I can imagine everyone will be very excited when they hear the news on Monday.
“But I also know that everyone, in every school, goes above and beyond every day and so it’s just lovely to receive this kind of recognition.”
To find out more information, visit the Northamptonshire Education Awards website.
