Formby High School is in the running to achieve award for - 'Most Inspirational Secondary School

The shortlist for the prestigious Educate Awards 2015 has been announced.

Five Sefton schools are amongst the shortlist, including Formby High School, Birkdale High School, Bishop David Sheppard Primary School, St Oswald’s C of E Primary and Netherton Moss Primary School.

The awards, sponsored by Connex Education, is now in its fourth year and celebrate the inspiring work that goes on inside and outside the school gates, awarding the innovation, excellence and passion through many different award categories.

There are 19 award categories in total, including Outstanding Commitment to Sport, Creative and Innovative Literacy and Teacher of the Year.

Leading the way and shortlisted in an incredible five award categories is Southport primary school, Bishop David Sheppard. It is shortlisted for the Community Partnership, Leadership Team of the Year, Eco School Project of the Year, Innovative and Creative Literacy and Science Project of the Year awards.

Formby High School is in the running for one of the nights most sought after awards, Most Inspirational Secondary School.

Birkdale High School in Southport is one of five schools shortlisted for the Spirit of Enterprise award.

St Oswald’s Primary in Bootle is shortlisted in both the Outstanding Teaching of Life Skills and Outstanding Arts in a Primary School categories.

Netherton Moss Primary School is also in the running for the Outstanding Arts in a Primary School award, and for the night’s final recognition, the Wow Award, given to a school which has created the ‘wow factor’ during the 2014-15 academic year.

The Educate Awards has grown from strength to strength since its introduction in 2012 and this year saw a record number of entries which, for the first time, included submissions from schools in the boroughs of Lancashire and Cheshire.

The awards already accepts entries from schools in the Liverpool City Region (Liverpool, Sefton, Knowsley, Wirral, St Helens and Halton).

This year, the difficult task of shortlisting the entries fell upon the esteemed judging panel which includes football icon Robbie Fowler; Radio City breakfast host Leanne Campbell; Olympian and managing director of Raise The Bar, Steve Smith; Councillor Gary Millar, Liverpool’s cabinet member for business, enterprise and investment; Chris Walker, regional managing editor of Trinity Mirror North West and North Wales; Lesley Martin-Wright, chief executive of Knowsley Chamber; Mark Beedles, managing director of Connex Education; Fiona Barnet, director of The Foundry Agency; Andrew Pimbley of Claremont Farm and Wirral’s Farm Feast; and the education team at the respected Everyman and Playhouse Theatres.

The judges remarked on the variety of entries across all 19 categories and the exceptional standard of submissions. The passion and innovation showcased throughout made choosing this year’s shortlist the most difficult yet.

The winners will be announced at the annual awards ceremony, which takes place on 20 November at Liverpool Cathedral.

Kim O’Brien, founder of the Educate Awards, says: “We’re delighted to finally reveal the shortlisted schools ahead of the Educate Awards in November. This year has been a bumper year not only for the number of entries but the quality too. Each category was packed with inspiring projects and exciting initiatives, which, from speaking to our judges made shortlisting the final line up a very hard task!

“Congratulations to all the schools shortlisted and thank you to each and every school that submitted an entry this year. We’re now one step closer to presenting 19 special awards on 20 November!”

Associate sponsors at the awards include Adlib Solutions, Carillion plc, The Foundry Agency, Paul Crowley & Co, Greater Merseyside Learning Providers’ Federation, Liverpool Hope University, Vivark, Schools 4 Health, eCadets, The City of Liverpool College, MerseySTEM, NCS and Liverpool John Moores University.