It’s a world known better for its red pens than red carpets, and despite some occasional glitter and glue, the shine often comes only from the geography teacher’s polyester trousers.

But last week some 90 schools and more than 1,000 teachers were celebrated in a glittering ceremony at the Tes Schools Awards that was outshone only by the amazing - and humbling - achievements of the winners.

You might get endless dedications at the Oscars, but here we got endless dedication. Sine MacVicar was rewarded with a lifetime achievement award for her incredible 44 years educating three generations of families at Dunbeg Primary School in Oban, first as a classroom teacher, then as a head.

Headteacher of the year Alan Gray, of Sandringham School, in St Albans, attends every extracurricular and social activity that his school runs. Last Friday was no exception: a school field trip trumped collecting his award at a swanky reception.

“Whatever you do, you have to make the people you’re with at that time feel like they’re the only people of importance,” Gray says. “I think that’s one of the secrets of success.” He’s absolutely right, and it is one of the characteristics that sets out many charismatic leaders, most notably former US president Bill Clinton.

You “are the first celebrities that we have in our lives”, the secretary of state told teachers on the night. It’s an astute point and underlines the powerful and privileged position teachers have in children’s lives.

For a child, a teacher is often the first person other than their parents that they will really look up to. For them, they are superhuman, which is why it is such a shock to see them doing ordinary things like buying bread and milk in Tesco.

The real celebrities

I can still remember, as a child on a school trip, knocking with some trepidation on my rather fearsome teacher Sister Laurentia’s door and the shock when she opened it not wearing her veil. She had HAIR. She was a human being.

Teachers are special human beings doing a very special job. And as is befitting a room full of celebrities, Justine Greening, unusually for an education secretary in my experience, took the time to go round the room to talk to them instead of vice versa.

It was a welcome glimpse of Greening doing things her own way - the warm on-stage hug for award-winner MacVicar provided a huge contrast to her leader Theresa May’s “Maybot” image.

It was also brave to put herself at the mercy of teachers and headteachers angry at funding cuts and the recruitment crisis, and still reeling from grammar schools.

But it’s fair to say that it was in keeping with some of the decisions she has taken thus far - ditching an entire education bill, performing a volte-face on funding cuts for apprentices, abandoning a 2015 manifesto commitment on forced Sats resits and introducing compulsory sex education.

Unfortunately for her, though, however bright these achievements were, in news terms they were always eclipsed by grammar schools. Everyone knew she wasn’t a fan but they cast a dark shadow over her tenure. Now that has lifted, one hopes, behind the scenes, she was getting to grips with the arguably more important issues of recruitment and funding.

It’s a grammar-free but volatile political landscape we now find ourselves in. And as the shakedown of the magic money tree begins, can she emerge as a winner and deliver for the schools sector?

@AnnMroz