Silver Award winner for Secondary teacher of the year Mr Simpson was invited to formally accept his award at the Houses of Commons on July 13^th 2017. He was joined by Heidi Alexander the MP representing the borough of Lewisham East where St Matthew Academy is based.

The Silver Award winners were invited to tea by MP Alook Sharma, who has hosted the celebratory tea for the past four years and claims that it is ‘the most fantastic awards that you can think of… because what all of you do as teachers is ensure that the next generation is even more prepared than the previous’. 

Tens of thousands of teachers entries were sent to the judging panel for just 12 awards, this was whittled down to just 56 finalists. Mr Dan Simpson is one of these finalists and he along with the other silver medal finalists enjoyed their tea on the banks of the Thames with a range of MP’s and educational VIP’s.

Incredibly it was also Mr Simpson’s St Matthew Academy Production Company that were selected by the BBC to do a BBC school report on the event. The BBC School report team were made up from St Matthew Academy Media Production team, these included Mr Cameron, Tiffany and Jose. They did a fantastic job representing the academy and the BBC and their report will be published very soon.

Mr Simpson, ‘It has been an absolutely fantastic experience winning a Silver award and being nominated for gold, it was amazing being around the other Silver award winners and what made the day really special was that I was able to share this experience with my incredible students, colleague and wife. The BBC School report is an amazing opportunity for young people to get involved in the creation News and engaged in what is going on in Britain and the world.’

The final of the National Teaching Awards takes place on 22^nd October 2017. The event is televised by the BBC and broadcast as Britain’s Classroom Heroes on BBC2 on Sunday 29^th October.

Congratulations to Mr Simpson and the Production Company from St Matthew Academy!