Sponsors

Headline Sponsor and Overall Education Hero of the Year

Step Teachers is the home of honest, ethical, and dedicated education recruitment.  Founded by two teachers in 2000, it has placed over 8000 amazing teachers and support staff into its partner schools.

With a network of branches in Norwich, London, Stevenage, Rainham and Plymouth, they are ideally placed to offer teaching staff to schools across southern England.

Step Teachers prides itself on providing an unparalleled level of service.  It is their pledge to be safer recruitment trailblazers.  They became members of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation in 2007 and have gone on to achieve the REC’s Audited Education status in every bi-annual audit since.  A key milestone came in 2017 when they became the first agency to achieve 100% in the REC’s Online Diagnostic test; a feat they repeated in 2021 and again in 2022.

July 2022 also saw Step Teachers being named as a supplier on Crown Commercial Service’s Supply Teachers and Support Staff Framework.  Cementing their commitment to providing an audited, cost-effective solution for education staffing requirements across East Anglia and the South. 

Step Teachers continues to demonstrate that an independent, family run business can thrive when inspiring their teams to adopt the work ethic derived from their core values of hard-work, professionalism, and honesty.  

Sponsor of Apprentice of the Year

Apprenticeships Norfolk is a free and impartial service run by Norfolk County Council [NCC]. It raises awareness of the benefits that apprenticeships can bring and the opportunities available locally, supporting individuals (of all ages) and businesses to access apprenticeships. A dedicated team offers practical support with any aspect of setting up an apprenticeship; from guidance on how to pick suitable apprenticeship training; to choosing a training provider and also helping businesses access financial support. The team also provide specific guidance to young people aged 16-18 (and for those up to the age of 25 in disadvantaged groups) through the Apprenticeship Support & Knowledge (ASK) programme.

Apprenticeships are core to NCC’s goal to support people and the economy in Norfolk to thrive. Apprenticeships Norfolk seeks to increase the number of businesses offering, and people (of all ages) accessing apprenticeships in Norfolk; working collaboratively with key stakeholders and training providers to increase the breadth and availability of local apprenticeship delivery.

Sponsor of Outstanding Commitment to Sport

Easton College will launch its new Centre of Excellence for Sport, Outdoor Leadership and Uniformed Services in 2024, building on the college’s outstanding reputation, facilities, and partnerships in these areas.

The college delivers a curriculum that is focused on students securing a future in the sports industry – both for aspiring professional sportsmen and sportswomen and for those who want to work in in coaching, sports therapy, and the myriad roles available in sports management and administration.

Its Outdoor Leadership course is renowned for the breadth and quality of its training, preparing young people with a passion for outdoor pursuits to work anywhere in the world. The course recently broke new ground by securing accreditation as a recognised Surf England club.    

In the area of Uniformed Services, the college works with the full range of services including the ambulance service, armed forces, fire and rescue, prisons and probation. The college has also worked with Norfolk Constabulary to pioneer courses – both at degree level and through an Access to Higher Education course – that are opening new pathways into policing and criminal justice careers.    

The new Centre of Excellence aims to challenge minds, inspire success, and secure futures by combing these highly complementary areas - harnessing the superb facilities, sharing expertise, and building on the strong relationships with employers in the sports, outdoor activity, and uniformed services sectors.   

Sponsor of Outstanding Support to Students

Part of City College Norwich, Norfolk Teacher Training Centre (NTTC) has been a teacher training provider since 2014. NTTC works with primary and secondary schools to provide high quality school-based initial teacher training, leading to Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). 

NTTC is committed to training great teachers who help each child flourish into caring, confident, and resilient young people with a love of learning. NTTC has a personalised, evidence-based approach to working with its trainees and are proud of the support they provide to help them succeed. 

Currently NTTC has 56 trainees and Apprentices in Primary, Special and Secondary schools. As a small provider, NTTC is proud to be in the top 20% of providers nationally for the success of its trainees and Apprentices in completing its courses, achieving QTS, gaining employment, and for its graduates remaining within the teaching profession. NTTC’s graduates make a real difference within schools, with a number of alumni progressing rapidly into management positions. 

The NTTC team consists of a Secondary and Primary Curriculum lead, three part-time deputy Curriculum Leaders and a Director, together with two Development Officers who support the running of the courses and liaise with partner schools. NTTC is rated as Good by Ofsted and was successful in getting through the recent Department for Education ITT review.

Sponsor of Primary School of the Year

Norse Catering, part of the Norse Group, provides schools, care settings and business sites with freshly prepared, locally sourced food that positively impacts health, nutrition, and wellbeing.

Based in Norwich, Norse Catering serves approximately 20,000 meals a day across 160 Schools in East Anglia. They employ over 700 members of staff, most of whom work within the community they live.

Over 75% of the ingredients used are sourced from local suppliers within East Anglia.

Norse Catering believe it’s not just about the food on the plate, they believe they are helping create positive memories for children and work in partnership with schools to provide hands-on learning and fun through food.

They have a Dietitian and Menu Development Team to ensure their menus fully comply with school food standards and they work closely with student councils to ensure the menus appeal to children’s tastes and preferences.

Sponsor of Teacher of the Year

Teach is an educational supply specialist working across East Anglia.  

Our mission is to build an education community with strong relationships to ultimately provide the very best teaching and learning experience.

Established in 2011 Teach is proud to supply experienced Teachers, Teaching Assistants and Nursery Nurses to our clients in a wide range of mainstream and SEND settings.  

Head office is based in Framingham Pigot just outside Norwich where our team of 25 is situated.

Our companies’ values are based on our hard-working honest relationships that we have established with our clients in a range of SEN and Mainstream settings.

Our dedicated SEND department helps schools to find specialist Teachers and Support staff to ensure inclusive provision. 

At Teach Compliance and Vetting is at the heart of everything we do to ensure complete peace of mind for our clients, our Recruitment and Compliance team look after candidates when they join Teach and advise them through the interview process. 

At Teach we believe that by doing what you love you inspire the hearts and minds of others.

Sponsor of Teaching Assistant or Support Staff of the Year

Vattenfall has a commitment to the region to encourage, enable and enhance a local highly skilled and diverse workforce to meet the business needs of our Norfolk Zone projects and its Supply Chain, as well as raising the aspirations of individuals. Vattenfall is creating pathways into the offshore wind sector via education and skills training, upskilling and re-skilling opportunities.