NASUWT proud to back Philip Lawrence Awards

The Philip Lawrence Awards are a fantastic showcase for the positive work of young people in their communities and the NASUWT is “proud” to be a major sponsor.

Senior Vice President Paula Roe praised the “selfless” work carried out by hundreds of children and young adults up and down the country that the awards recognise.

She was speaking at an event at the Home Office in London when the judging panel of the awards, headed by ITV broadcaster Sir Trevor McDonald met to pick the finalists for the 2012 competition. Those finalists are expected to be announced in 2012.

The Philip Lawrence Awards recognise outstanding youth involvement in the community.

They were established in 1997 in memory of headteacher Philip Lawrence, who was murdered while protecting a pupil outside his school.

Mrs Roe said: “The NASUWT have been involved with the Philip Lawrence Awards for a long time now. I am absolutely delighted to be part of it.

“It is brilliant to see pupils shown in such a positive light giving so much back to the community.

“The awards show such as positive image of the selfless work done by pupils and what they do in their communities.

“As NASUWT we are really proud to be involved with all of the projects that have been ongoing and are still ongoing.

“We would like to see this promoted even more widely.”

Sir Trevor said: “The Philip Lawrence awards seeks to award young people who make a big difference to their communities.

“It seeks to generally change the stereotype of young people and we have had some projects which have reflected that very well.

“Throughout the whole existence of the Philip Lawrence Awards that has been the theme, showing that young people are not problems in society always, they are problem solvers.

“They can help solve some of the problems in their communities. It is wonderful to see young people involved.”

Previous award winners at the event included Francella Byrne (14) and Lewis Sloman (13) from Gladesmore Community School in Tottenham.

They are part of a project called Value Life, anti gun and knife crime project.

Francella, who is head of the school council explained: “This campaign is student-led and is designed to provide positive choices to our community.

Lewis said: “It is about preventing young people picking up guns and knives and trying to encourage them.”

Lee Carryl, Head of Citizenship at Gladesmore added: “The confidence this has given children has helped them and given them the ability to go out and try and make change. That is what is really important here.”