The Association are pleased to report that the National School Support Staff Awards 2012 took place at the Thistle Marble Arch Hotel, London, on Saturday 6th October 2012 and were a huge success.

NASBM have been running the National School Support Staff Awards since 2005 to raise the profile of school support staff and ensure that they receive the same level of recognition that the Teaching Awards provide for the teaching profession.

These Awards provide schools with the opportunity to recognise the contributions that support staff individuals and teams make to the success and achievements of the overall school environment. Support staff are in many cases the unsung heroes of a school ensuring the smooth running of activities so that there is no disruption to the teaching and learning and provide a safe and enjoyable environment for pupils.

This year NASBM introduced the ‘Team of the Year Award’ for the first time to recognise the growing number of teams that exist within a school and the essential contributions that they make. We had received feedback from schools that it could prove difficult to select just one individual that stood head and shoulders above the other members of the team.

The introduction of this award has seen the nominations significantly exceed the entries that were received in 2011, making the process of selecting the finalists much harder for the judges. We are delighted to have continued to receive such huge interest in the awards again this year.

The awards ceremony took place on Saturday 6th October 2012 at the Thistle Marble Arch, London. The national finalists in each category attended the Awards Ceremony and we are pleased to announce that Handsworth Grammar School’s Canteen Staff won the ‘Team of the Year Award’.

 

All of year 7 entered the Next Generation Award which is organised by the Birmingham Civic Society. The purpose of the project is to produce a plan of a project that could be run in Birmingham to make a difference to a certain group or area. The year 7 had to think of a project and then present it to their form tutor. The best presentations were then chosen to deliver to a panel from the Birmingham Civic Society. The winning group from this then represented the school at Newman College University. Overall two groups gained a silver award and 6 groups a bronze award. This is made more significant in this was achieved by year 7 students when almost all the other schools were represented by year 9 students. We will be continuing this award in our Citizenship days this academic year.

Mobeen Mohammed 8A with Anita Ward Deputy Lord Mayor