An inspirational art teacher who goes ‘above and beyond’ to bring the joy of art to hundreds of disabled children in the North East, has scooped a prestigious national award.
Lauren Tate, from North Shields, who works at the Percy Hedley Foundation’s Northern Counties School in Jesmond, has been crowned ‘Art Teacher of the Year’ at the Unique Art Awards – for her dedication, hard work and ability to make art inclusive for everyone.
The Unique Art Awards is a national art competition for disabled children and the 2022 Awards included a category for Arts Teacher of the year in Special Education.
The award comes with a £2000 prize that will be spent on art supplies for her pupils, who range from three, to 18 years old.
To ensure her lessons are inclusive for children with a wide range of complex special needs, Lauren has undertaken a vast amount of additional training – often in her own time. This has included gaining qualifications in British Sign Language, picture exchange communication system, autism, teaching pupils with visual impairments, profound and multiple learning disability, and sensory integration.
The award-win recognises her work to ensure that all young people can enjoy art – no matter what their abilities, or disabilities. Pupils who had previously been reluctant – or unable – to try art are now able to participate, thanks to Lauren’s skills and techniques.
Lauren never gives up when it comes to making art classes happen – if a pupil feels more comfortable in their own classroom she takes her lesson and resources to them – supporting them to learn wherever they feel most safe.
Interim Chief Executive of The Percy Hedley Foundation, John Steward, explains: “Lauren is an absolute inspiration – we see her teaching outside, in school corridors, in the Forest School – she will go anywhere and adapt her lessons however is necessary, to meet the needs of every single young person in school.
“She also models how to make art accessible to our 200 support staff. Being able to manage such a large number of employees is way over and above what most teachers need to do.
“She works very closely with our speech and occupational therapists to ensure she incorporates the right level of structure and the correct equipment into her lessons for young people with autism and complex needs. We are very proud to have her on our team.”
Lauren gives up her lunch break, once a week, to run the school art club – planning a series of fun sessions, which are open to everyone in school.
Lauren said: “I am delighted to win the award but the real satisfaction is seeing how my work benefits our young people every day. We use art to help build self-esteem and I have seen some remarkable results. Because each of our pupils have their own unique, individual care plans, my teaching methods need to vary greatly in order to engage everyone but this does not stop us creating some fantastic art projects, using a wide variety of mediums.”
Lauren directed and filmed the school’s young people taking part in their own version of Shrek-The Musical, which was broadcast to parents and carers. This was a huge project, in terms of costume design, sets, use of computing and green screen technology. Many parents were thrilled to see their children’s enjoyment of this production. Lauren edited the film in such a way that all the pupils took part and felt a sense of purpose and pride in their work.