ASIAN HEADTEACHER WINS REGIONAL TEACHING AWARD
(20 July 2005)

Yasmin Bevan of Denbigh High School, Luton, Bedfordshire was named the Regional Winner of the RAF Award for Headteacher of the Year in a Secondary School for the East of England. She collected her award on 29 June 2005 in Norwich. The style of Yasmin's headship was described as outstanding by OFSTED and has been commended personally by the Prime Minister. Already recognised nationally as an expert on secondary education, she is involved in several working parties sharing the excellent management practices she has engaged for the last 14 years at her vibrant, multicultural school.

Yasmin is the first to recognise that she is backed by a tremendous staff: an energetic, committed and highly skilled team of governors, senior managers, teachers and support staff who are all relentless in their efforts to raise standards and give pupils the best possible access to learning. GCSE results have risen dramatically in recent years with excellent achievement at the end of Key Stage 4, including pupils with special needs and students for whom English is not their primary language.

Quick to seize opportunities, Yasmin has generated an immense amount of funding and commercial support. This May the school opened its new state-of-the-art sports complex courtesy of £1.5 million from the New Opportunities Fund, a development that will offer vastly improved facilities to both pupils and the local community. The school is also one of just a handful of Microsoft partner schools in the country providing an integrated learning portal for staff and students.

Passionate in her belief that all pupils can succeed, she still takes time to be a hands-on headteacher as both a visible presence in the school and mentor to a group of Year 11 pupils. Within the community she is also a key figure, particularly among local ethnic communities where she is viewed as an exemplary role model. With her tenacious spirit and well-articulated vision of the future, she is a headteacher that has managed to get everyone sharing her mission statement for the school: 'High achievement for all is our shared responsibility.'

The Teaching Awards 2005 Regional Ceremony for the East of England took place on Wednesday 29 June at the Assembly House in Norwich. The seventh prestigious annual event since the Teaching Awards Trust was established by Lord Puttnam in 1998 was hosted by BBC Look East's Carol Bundock and attended by John Sutton CBE and Teaching Awards Chief Executive, David Hanson.

The Ceremony was a celebration of excellence in schools across the East of England and was an opportunity to pay tribute to the enormous contribution made by all the Finalists to their schools and the wider community. David Hanson, Chief Executive of the Teaching Awards Trust said: 'Teaching Awards Winners are ordinary people doing an extraordinary job, day in and day out. They represent everyone working in education across all key stages and every type of school. We believe that there is no greater responsibility than teaching the next generation and that these people deserve recognition at a local and national level."

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