Scottish Catholic Observer

Danielle Timmons, depute head at St Vincent’s Primary School in East Kilbride, picked up the teacher of the year award on June 8 in Glasgow City Hotel. It was one of a number of successes for Catholic schools on the night, punching above their weight by taking away six of the 17 awards.

Ms Timmons, 30, has been at the school since she left university. She said she was surprised and a little embarrassed to win the award. “The ceremony was different from what I expected and really nerve wracking,” she said. “I hadn’t prepared anything because I didn’t expect to win. I didn’t really have anything to say I was so shocked.”

The teacher of the year credited her win to her dedication to the job. “I’ve done the school choir for the last ten years, and have been doing a space and astronomy club this year, and I helped get our school into the final of the Rolls Royce science prize. And I try my hardest not to stay in my own classroom; I work with pupils across the school. They do genuinely inspire me and it’s because of them that I maybe do spend that extra time in work. It’s a great community here.”

Ms Timmons, who was promoted to depute head in February, said her Catholic faith influenced how she teaches the children. “We have five values that we teach to every day. And if I teach the children about friendship and respect and resilience then I need to show that in my everyday life. When the children do something wrong I do go down the values route.”

The Scottish Education Awards take place every year, and this is the second time in three years that a Catholic teacher has won the top award, with Gillian Campbell-Thow of All Saints Secondary in Glasgow picking it up in 2014.

Also picking up an award was St Albert’s Primary in Glasgow in the creative learning category. The school is located in an area of high immigration and 98% of its pupils are not Catholics. But headteacher Clare Harker said she was proud and unafraid to state the school’s Catholic identity, and has made creativity a core part of the school philosophy. “We are not being creative with kids liturgy but we look at how we can bring faith into our school and make it visible. We had to think creatively to do that. We look at commonalities and look at what makes us the same and we look at love and we look at social justice. We aren’t afraid to be who we are and celebrate who we are. Before it was a bit of a worry because of the demographics of the school but we celebrate Mass together and we pray. We are very Catholic; we are full of love. It’s visible but not with token displays.”

The school takes a creative, ‘outside the box’ approach to each issue in the school. A recent art project was used as a way to teach languages to the students, including English to eight children who came to Scotland as refugees from Syria, and the school grounds have been developed to encourage play among the children.

“Children are naturally creative,” she said. “They learn in an explorative way. That gets drummed out of you as an adult but you don’t lose it. And giving everybody freedom to run classes the way they choose engages staff with their creativity.”

Other winners on the evening where St Michael’s Primary in Dumfries for Making Languages Come Alive, St John Ogilvie High in Hamilton in the Parents as Partners in Learning Award, St Eunan’s Primary in Clydebank for learning for sustainability, and a lifetime achievement award for Carol McManus of St Roch’s Secondary in Glasgow.

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—This story ran in full in the June 17 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.