Teacher from Jewish primary school in Edgware wins national magazine award

A teacher from a Jewish primary school in Edgware has won a national award for ‘Teacher of the Week’.

Gemma Blaker, of Beit Shvidler Primary School, received the accolade from ‘The Week Junior’, a national magazine for children, after pupils submitted the highest number of nominations in the award’s history.

Mrs Blaker is a Year 1 form teacher and head of learning and curriculum. She has been with the school for three years.

Speaking to Jewish News, she said she had “been overwhelmed by the response to this award.”

Mrs Blaker was praised for her efforts to make learning interesting and relevant, taking her young pupils on local walking trips and sharing her passion for reading by setting up book clubs and creating reading challenges.

Young pupil six-year-old Jessica Dysch, one of the children who nominated her teacher, told local Times-Series newspaper “It’s amazing, it’s phenomenal. Mrs Blaker is fun. She turns everything into a game. She did a book fair and she had a cool T-shirt saying ‘It’s a good day to do lots of reading’.”