What does it take to generate enthusiasm for science? Pam Cooley reports on The TES award that celebrates teachers’ classroom skills Our aim is to recognise good practice, to help raise teachers’ self-esteem and to show the support of the industry for what they are doing. We want good scientists, and good teachers make good scientists,” says Libby Steele, who represents the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, on the judging panel for the secondary section of The TES Science Teacher of the Year Award.

The primary section of the award is sponsored by the international pharmaceutical company Pfizer. Its representative John Adams says: “Morale among teachers is low but there is a lot of very good science teaching going on in primary schools and we want it known that this is recognised by an international pharmaceutical company.”

The TES Science Teacher of the Year Award, run jointly with the Association for Science Education, is organised on a regional and national basis. A teacher is nominated either by a head, colleague, pupil or parent. A short list is drawn up and each teacher named is visited by a member of the judging panel. A prize of Pounds 100 is given to each regional winner who may then on to the national final which carries a prize of Pounds 1,000, divided between the teacher and the school.

An important stipulation in the suggested criteria for lesson observation laid town by the ASE is that the judges will be looking for a teacher who “shows outstanding classroom ability and has an infectious enthusiasm for the subject. Skill in communicating science and the ability to motivate students of all abilities . . . are very important.”

John Adams, who as academic co-ordinator for Pfizer knows exactly what he is looking for, says: “You get a ‘buzz’ as soon as you step into the classroom. A feeling there of enthusiasm even before the children come in. I look at the wall displays. Are they interactive and used as part of teaching? Are they the children’s work - all the children, not just the bright ones?” He particularly remembers a class where: “The children were enraptured by what their teacher was telling them and what they were doing - being posed questions, encouraged to make predictions and to take responsibility.”

Regional winner from Lancashire Judith Glover, who teaches at St Stephen’s CE primary school, has put into practice her belief in the importance of practical work by helping children and parents to make and maintain a prize-winning wild life pond and conservation area. Her approach to teaching is summed up when she says: “I try to give the children a chance to observe, allowing them free rein to experiment without worrying about noise and mess and just where necessary. ” She has also given the children the encouragement and confidence to enter and win honours in the ASEBritish Fuels “Science Challenge” and “Earth Limited” competitions.

Libby Steele, who co-ordinates ABPI’s education work, found “tremendous quality” among this year’s candidates. Rather than having to choose between two equally excellent entries, ABPl agreed to raise the number of secondary regional finalists from six to seven. Libby also says: “Teachers are often really modest about having their names put forward. They don’t realise that their schools, their pupils and the parents are proud of them.”

All the judges, from the ASE, Pfizer, ABPI, the National Conference of Parent Teacher Associations and the National Governors Association, regretted that unlike the splendid nominations in 1994, this year there were no entries from Scotland or Northern Ireland.

Judy Machin, a regional winner who teaches at Gumley House Convent School in Middlesex, says:“So many people are knocking teachers that it’s a great morale booster. Science is a magic subject but these days, with so much going on around them, children can get turned off very easily, it’s a challenge to keep them interested.

“So many new developments are based in science and it is important for them to be able to understand what is going on and make the right judgments.”

Susan Madden, another regional finalist, has no science qualifications. She teaches profoundly deaf students at Thorn Park School and Service for the Deaf in Bradford. The judges reported that “her skill in communicating science is quite remarkable”.

However, the award is not only for teachers doing exceptional things. Betty Preston, former Chair of the ASE, says: “Whatever the work is, and often it is straightforward exam work, what matters is putting it across in a way that holds the pupils’ attention and makes sometimes rather tedious things interesting.”

The regional winners are: Primary - Judith Glover, St Stephen’s CE (Aided) Primary, Burnley, Lancs; Alison Porteous, St Mary’s RC First School, Hexham, Northumberland (now headteacher at Beaufront First School, Hexham); Janice Baynham, Ysgol Trefonnen, Llandrindod Wells, Powys; Ann Force, Chacewater CP School, Truro, Cornwall; Christine Round, Shaw Wood Junior School, Armthorpe, Doncaster; Elizabeth Hoadley, Bredgar CEP, Sittingbourne, Kent.

Secondary - Neil Heeley, Greenhead College, Huddersfield; Jill Simpson, Chantry Middle School, Morpeth, Northumberland; Susan Madden, Thorn Park and Service for the Deaf, Bradford; Margaret Sindall, Colyton Grammar School, Devon; David Wylde, Flint High School, Flint, Clwyd; Judy Machin, Gumley House Convent School, Isleworth, Middlesex; Steven Thornhill, Royal Grammar School, Guildford, Surrey.

* The 1995 national winners will be announced at the ASE Annual Meeting to be held at Reading University on January 5, and a full report on the winning teachers will appear in next week’s TES.

* Nominations for The TES Science Teacher of the Year can be put forward by a wide range of people, including pupils, colleagues, parents and schools. Details and nomination forms for next year’s competition are available from the ASE, College Lane, Hatfield, Herts AL10 9AA. Enclose an A4 SAE