Educate Awards 2021: Preston's Eldon Primary School has been shortlisted for four prestigious education awards

Eldon Primary School in Preston has been shortlisted for four Educate Awards, an annual prestigious awards ceremony which celebrates the excellence of schools in Merseyside, Cheshire, Lancashire and Greater Manchester.

This year the school has been shortlisted for the Innovative & Creative Literacy Award, the Outstanding Commitment to STEM award, as well as the all-rounder accolades, the WOW Recognition Award, and The Most Inspirational Primary School.

The Headteacher of Eldon Primary School, Azra Butt said: "To be shortlisted for four regional awards is tremendous isn’t it? We’ve never been shortlisted for four awards, its normally just the one, so on this occasion, it’s fantastic that we’ve been recognized for four different areas, so we’re very proud and very pleased and it's just great to be able to celebrate everybody's hard work."

Their first nomination, the Innovative & Creative Literacy Award, looks at schools which have innovative approaches to embedding the development of literacy skills across all levels of learning.

Meanwhile, the Outstanding Commitment to STEM award, which is sponsored by All About Stem, awards schools with a range of exceptional STEM activities or who have developed successful STEM projects that promote the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects to all students.

The WOW award recognises inspirational projects undertaken by schools which created that WOW factor, and Azra says their project was the launch of the school's base for forest learning, 'The Burrow', on St George's Day in April, where the children were joined by St George and his dragon, as well as a wizard.

Azra explained: “On the day, the children went out to experience the cabin and were entertained by a story, which was based on a book called 'Tell Me a Dragon', but then we launched into the link with St George and the dragon, and because we were acting the story out near the Burrow, we also linked the story with this new environment we had created for the children, so it was the learning that took place, which brought a story to real life, that meant we were nominated for that one."

Commenting on their fourth nomination, Azra said: “We’ve actually won The Most Inspirational Primary School of the Year award twice before, in 2019 and I think 2017 was the one before, so we’re going for the hattrick! All schools are doing a great job in these times but I feel like, despite Covid, our school seems to be flying the flag for amazing learning.

"You hear how far children are behind, and I’m not saying ours are definitely not, but they seem to be really resilient, and it's wonderful that the staff and the children and the parents have all just come together and made sure that we continue to do what we should be doing, which is making sure that our children get the best opportunities day in, day out."

Eldon Primary School will find out if they have won any of the awards in the Educate Awards Ceremony held on November 19 at Liverpool Cathedral.