A remarkable London headteacher has won a major prize at the Tes Schools Awards, one of the biggest nights in the UK education calendar which was held on Friday 13th November.

Evelyn Forde, head of Copthall School in Barnet, north London, was named Headteacher of the Year.

Copthall School, a girls’ secondary was rated as ‘requires improvement’ in January 2016 as its outcomes, reputation and pupil numbers plummeted. Only two years later, after Ms Forde took the helm, the school was awarded a “good” rating, and Copthall has been in the top 4 per cent of schools nationally for progress at GCSE for the past 3 years, and the top 1.5 per cent in the 2018-19 academic year.

Beyond results, Ms Forde has been tireless in promoting her school and being a positive role model, for example, by climbing Snowdon to raise money for Copthall and raise awareness of the important issue of school funding. She is also a mentor to other black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) teachers struggling for promotion and has brought the issue of BAME under-representation to the national press.

Lead judge Dame Joan McVittie said at the judging session that this was the strongest cohort of nominations she had seen in seven years, but Ms Forde stood out. She said: “The quality and quantity of entries for the headteacher award were exceptionally high. This made judging very challenging and the final winner is well deserving.”

Evelyn Forde said:

“I’m really blown away! It’s been a phenomenal journey from where I started. I’m immensely humbled. The results have gone through the roof and have now placed us in the top 3% in the country. This award means a lot to the school community too – this is the icing on the cake on top of all the hard work the staff have put in.”

Chief judge of the Tes Schools Awards and Editor of Tes magazine Ann Mroz said:

“The Tes Schools Awards are the Oscars of education, recognising and celebrating everything that’s great about our schools and school staff.

“These awards are for the 2018-19 academic year. It’s evident from the entries how hard and how imaginatively school staff were working to give children a great education. Since then, of course, they have had a pandemic to contend with. But this has only served to underline their commitment to the children in their care. They have worked their socks off to make sure children are learning and are safe. So we congratulate all winners but we also salute each and every person working in our schools today.”

The Tes Schools Awards were held virtually for the first time to comply with coronavirus regulations. In previous years the awards ceremony has been held at the Grosvenor Hotel, on London’s Park Lane.