Teaching heroes awarded People's Choice award at Teach Portsmouth Awards 2022 for going above and beyond during pandemic

On Thursday, June 9, the Teach Portsmouth Awards at Portsmouth Guildhall saw staff members from schools across the area come together to celebrate the achievements of their colleagues hosted by award-winning comic Shaparak Khorsandi.

The People’s Choice Award, sponsored by The News andpresented by the editor, Mark Waldron, saw teaching assistant from Beacon View Primary Academy, Rebekah Egerton and additional support assistant Dee Ient from Cumberland Infant School win awards for their work during the pandemic.

Rebekah Egerton was recognised for supporting children on a one to one basis, gaining trust with ‘difficult’ pupils and offering an ‘understanding’ and ‘patient’ attitude to support them through school.

Dee Ient won the award for supporting children who are partially sighted, which has been the ‘main bulk’ of her work over the last 15 years.

For the children she’s supported over the years Dee would often adjust learning materials to accommodate their needs ensuring children don’t feel isolated due to their disability.

During lockdown, Mrs Ient recorded messages and arranged phone calls to continue children’s education.

On the awards evening she expressed her ‘delight’ at achieving the school accolade.

She said: ‘I'm really delighted. I think it's good for me personally. It's good for my school. It's an accolade for the school. It's a lovely thing that the family can join in with as well because they're rooting for me at home. It's just a really lovely thing to hear everybody else's stories as well.

‘The main bulk of my work for the last 15 years has been working with visually impaired children so I've got quite a bit of experience in that.’

Presenting the joint awards, Mark Waldron, editor of The News said: ‘It’s so lovely to be together once more in the same room.

‘We’ve supported the awards for many years and heard so many inspiring accounts of school and college staff.

‘This award celebrates the most incredible individuals.’

Portsmouth residents with a child or young person in school or college in the city were invited to nominate a teacher, learning support assistant or head teacher online earlier this year.