Dominican teacher attends Downing Street reception

A Dominican teacher has expressed his delight at attending a reception to celebrate excellence in education hosted by the Prime Minister, David Cameron, at Downing Street.

Kevin Ramsay was among the Teaching Award winners hosted in the Teracotta Room which is adorned with pictures of each Prime Minister from the earliest Walpole to Mr Cameron himself.

Mr Ramsay explained: “I arrived at the gates of Downing Street full of trepidation to meet with a line of teachers awaiting a once in a lifetime opportunity to see inside Number 10 and to attend, at the Prime Minister’s special invitation, a reception to honour Teaching Award winners.

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“I had been invited the previous week in recognition of winning the Northern Ireland Secondary Teacher of the Year 2010.”

“After about an hour of catching up with old friends from the 2010 awards and trying to absorb the unique atmosphere of one of the world’s most famous houses, the Prime Minister formally welcomed the 150 award winning teachers, ‘in recognition of the tremendous work you do, to my little Georgian home.’

“As a parent himself, the Prime Minister spoke about the difference that excellent teachers made to his own children and explained how his own love of History being instilled in him by his old teacher.”

The Prime Minister told the assembled guests: “It’s incredibly encouraging to know that over 22,000 teachers from across the UK are thought of so highly by their pupils, colleagues and local community that they were nominated for a Teaching Award.

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“This is a testament to the thousands of hard-working and inspirational teachers there are in the country and everyone who was nominated should be proud of the impact they have clearly had on the lives of the children they teach.

“I would especially like to congratulate the winners who I met in Downing Street. I heard some amazing stories of the passion these teachers bring to the classroom and their drive not just to teach but to make a real difference in their schools. Each one of them should be proud of this achievement.”

Also present in Downing St were Alex Kingston, Al Murray, Michael Gove all of whom had been present at the 2011 awards ceremony held the previous weekend.