Tollgate school teacher Nathan Kemp with the award

Every child at Nathan Kemp’s school wants to be in his class. Now, his enthusiasm sense of fun has earned him a major teaching award.

Nathan, who works at Tollgate Primary School in Beckton, has won the Award for Teacher of the Year in a Primary School in London and the South East for the 2012 Pearson Teaching Awards.

He was shortlisted from a record number of nominations and will join the other winning teachers from across England, Wales and Northern Ireland at the prestigious UK Ceremony which will be aired on BBC2 in the autumn.

Tom Canning, headteacher at the school, said: “Nathan Kemp is a most exceptional teacher who inspires all children to reach their full potential. His brilliant and inspirational teaching makes a huge difference to our children’s lives and we are very proud that his achievements have now been fully recognised. The whole Tollgate community is rightly proud of him and we look forward to supporting Nathan at the National Finals in October.”

Judges praised his “amazing ability to bring learning alive and to create an exciting motivational and truly inspirational learning environment. He has very high expectations of all his pupils and they in turn wish to aspire to the highest standards of learning to please their teacher. This is classroom where learning is fun, exciting and so striking that the imagery stays with children for life.

“Children speak of Nathan Kemp with huge warmth and admiration. The children admire his youthful enthusiasm and sharp sense of style that makes learning fun and relevant to today. All pupils in the school repeatedly ask each year if they can be in Mr Kemp’s class.

His impact and influence across the school is enormous and he has the ability to motivate colleagues, delight and enthuse children, inspire parents with great confidence and make learning great fun. He is an exceptionally gifted teacher and extremely worthy winner of a Pearson Teaching Award.”