“I CANNOT foresee the day when I choose to leave. They are just a wonderful family.”

It was quite an emotional moment for this winner to receive his award after five years of superbly serving his school.

Bradford Forster teacher Josh Blackham fought off tough competition in the form of Beckfoot’s Claire Smith, and Buttershaw’s Emma King, to take this trophy home.

He said: “I have been at the school since leaving university in 2016 and they have always support me in all my decisions I have made.

“When they put me forward for this, I didn’t expect anything. I just thought it was lovely to be nominated.

“It is nice to feel recognised and this is the icing on the cake.

“You just do so much for the kids, and you never expect anything in return.

“As teachers we don’t usually like to be set apart from anyone else because we are all in it together, but it does feel special."

And this past 12 months has seen the staff pull together like never before to help students who saw their exams cancelled or curtailed in the first lockdown.

Even now Year 11 pupils are anxiously awaiting their results after this year’s lockdown scuppered their hopes of sitting their GCSEs. The upheaval has forced teaching staff to adapt to a whole new paradigm.

On the Covid situation, he added: “When the first lockdown came about nobody knew really what they were doing.

“There was a big push top get the kids online and throughout all that make sure they were supported.

“The school has put everything in place for the staff as well, limiting how much we needed to come into the building, coffee morning, virtual pub Fridays, just to make sure all the staff knew they were in it together, not just stuck at home.

“The support we have from the school and the people that we work with is the reason you turn up each day.”