Finding spare time as a headteacher can often require near-alchemical skills.

Yet Sine MacVicar, headteacher at Dunbeg Primary School, in Western Scotland, contributes so much to her local community, beyond the school walls, that she has even had a street named after her.

Ms MacVicar has just received the lifetime achievement award at the Tes Schools Awards 2017, recognising 44 years of service.

The annual awards celebrate dedication, hard work and commitment above and beyond the call of duty in the teaching profession.

This year, the awards were presented by comedian Julian Clary. In a sparklingly lit ballroom at the Grosvenor House Hotel, on London’s prestigious Park Lane, Clary coupled pointed asides about award-winners’ outfits with respect for their professional achievements.

More than 1,100 people attended the ceremony, among them the Westminster education secretary, Justine Greening.

Addressing the assembled guests, Greening said that the awards were an important opportunity to celebrate the work that teachers do.

“I really do feel that teachers are the first celebrities that we have in our lives,” Greening said. “I go back to my childhood, and I do remember, if you spot a teacher in the supermarket, how exciting that is for all of us. It was like, ‘What are they buying?’

“You are celebrities, and that’s why these awards really matter - because they are celebrating all the amazing work you do.”

MacVicar came in for high praise. The judges said of Ms MacVicar: “The time, energy and commitment that she has dedicated is extraordinary.”

She works with young people in and out of school, leading Girl Guides and church groups, and regularly invites elderly members of the community into the school, where they are cooked for and entertained by pupils.

First a classroom teacher and now headteacher, she says: “I’m so happy - I’m just scraping myself off the ceiling. I never expected it because we’re not a big school and we’re in rural area.

“What a night. I’ll never do that again in my life. It was just the atmosphere, the buzz, the hugeness of it - it was just so posh.”

Dunbeg Primary breaks up for the summer holidays today (Friday), the day of Ms MacVicar’s 65th birthday and the first day of her retirement. But she said all the excitement meant reality had yet to hit.

Her “wee village in the west of Scotland” has “gone national - and they are so, so proud”, she adds.

Alan Gray, head of Sandringham School, in St Albans, was named headteacher of the year. Every day, he manages to attend every extracurricular and social activity that his school runs.

Team spirit

As well as honouring individual teachers, the awards also recognised whole-school and team achievements. Larbert High, in Falkirk, won the science, technology and engineering team of the year award.

Headteacher Jon Reid said: “You work away really hard making all these connections and improving things for pupils - because everything is about improving the pupil experience - but you don’t know how good you are until someone else tells you, until you are recognised.

“An award like this tell you ‘this is good’, and it’s these sorts of things that drive you and make you more determined and ambitious to keep on going. We’re delighted.”

He said that on the morning of the awards, the school’s head girl, Becky Laird (S6), had been selected by the Scottish Space School to attend a week-long trip to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA.

The award for overall school of the year was presented to Broadford Primary School, in East London. It was a rare unanimous decision by the judges, recognising a wide-ranging programme of book clubs, knitting sessions and museum visits that the school offers its pupils.

But the competition for school of the year was tough. Everton Nursery School and Family Centre in Liverpool, named early-years setting of the year, also recognises the importance of extracurricular learning.

The nursery - which serves one of the most deprived areas of the city - regularly invites musicians from the Liverpool Philharmonic and artists from Tate Liverpool to deliver cultural education to pupils.

Meanwhile, staff at the secondary school of the year, St Thomas the Apostle College, in South-East London, have overseen a dramatic transformation in their school. It was the lowest-ranking secondary in its area in 2012; last year, it was 11th in the national league tables for Progress 8, which measures the progress of pupils between the end of primary school and the end of secondary school.

The alternative-provision school of the year also specialises in dramatic turnarounds. Pupils who attend The Boxing Academy, in East London, have usually been excluded for violence or antisocial behaviour.

But academy staff offer them a fresh start, providing boxing sessions to improve their concentration and fitness.

Last year, 80 per cent of pupils at The Boxing Academy achieved five GCSE passes, and 100 per cent of leavers went on to college or to an apprenticeship. The judges commented: “It demonstrates how a brave approach to behaviour can really pay off.”

Ann Mroz, Tes editor, said that it was wonderful to be celebrating the achievements of so many heads, teachers and schools.

“Teachers tend not to go into education for the glory, but that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve it,” she says. “We wanted to give them the recognition - and the glamour - that they have earned.”