Inspirational leader Lisamaria collects national award

Pupils in Livingston will be glued to their screens this Saturday to watch their ‘inspirational’ leader collect a national award.

Lisamaria Purdie was named Headteacher of the Year at a Primary School at the 2019 Pearson Training Awards. She attended a glamorous ceremony in London hosted by BBC presenters Tina Daheley and Sean Fletcher.

It will be broadcast on BBC2 this weekend in a programme called Britain’s Classroom Heroes.

It’s the second big award for Lisamaria. In June she was named Headteacher of the Year at the Scottish Education Awards 2019 in Glasgow for her outstanding work at St Ninian's Primary School.

She previously described how the Catholic faith is central to her role and the school's ethos.

Judges said: "Lisamaria’s passion for education embodies all that is important in the 21st century. She is an innovative and motivational leader who is forward thinking and inspirational.

“Lisamaria has engaging and effective communication skills which allow her to reach out and touch everyone both in school and in the wider community.

“She is a distributive leader who recognises her staff’s strengths and creates an open-door policy ensuring effective communication for all.”

They also highlighted her work in ensuring St Ninian’s is central to the local community, including transporting shopping to stuck families during winter snows and organising a ‘parent boot camp’ to get families into shape.

The Pearson Teaching Awards celebrate the best teaching across the UK, and gold winners are nominated for awards by pupils, parents and colleagues.

Eleven UK teachers were honoured as winners for their inspirational work in education.

Britain’s Classroom Heroes is on BBC2 this Saturday at 5:30pm.