CONGRATULATIONS to Esmeralda Salgado, our wonderful Head of Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) and Digital Learning Lead, who has been named a Silver Winner in this year’s Pearson National Teaching Awards!

Esmeralda discovered that she has won Silver in the ‘Teacher of the Year in a Secondary School’ category on May 26th.

Esmeralda has been teaching languages for 20 years, to students from Key Stage 2 through to Key Stage 5. She is an Advanced Skills Teacher and alongside her role as Head of MFL, has been King’s Ely’s Digital Lead for two years.

Esmeralda was instrumental in helping her colleagues here develop the skills to successfully take their teaching online when the pandemic struck in 2020. Her approach to teaching is reflected by our Digital Learning Strategy and Languages Curriculum and is underpinned by Rosenshine’s principles of instruction and research on second language acquisition.

In her current position and in her previous role as an Advanced Skills Teacher in the Medway Learning Authority, Esmeralda has supported and coached colleagues within MFL and other curriculum areas, especially NQTs and struggling teachers in Medway schools, to help them develop their own teaching and learning strategies and boost their confidence, and as a result, that of their pupils.

As a Silver Winner, Esmeralda has now been shortlisted to win one of just 16 Gold Awards later in the year. Recognition of this once in a lifetime achievement will be broadcast on the BBC’s ‘The One Show’ as part of a week-long celebration of teaching, which sees famous faces honour award winners every night in the run up to the ceremony.

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said: “Congratulations to Esmeralda Salgado on this incredible achievement, and for the hard work and dedication which led up to it. Winning this award is impressive, well-deserved and shows Esmeralda’s commitment to helping students achieve their full potential.”

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