A PRIMARY school teacher in Wantage has received the national “Science Teacher of the Year” award for her “incredibly innovative and creative work”.

Cat Boaz, who teaches at Charlton Primary School, received the award from the Primary Science Teaching Trust (PSTT) which aims to “recognise and reward outstanding primary science teachers”.

The awards were first introduced in 2003 and are open to all current full time or part time primary teachers and Ms Boaz was one of just nine from across the UK to receive the commemoration.  

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Ms Boaz was “delighted” to receive the accolade. She said: “I am very fortunate to work in a school and trust where my proposal for the role of a STEM Specialist Teacher was realised, allowing me to share my passion for science with staff and pupils alike. 

“I am incredibly proud of the work that our teachers are doing to improve the standard of science teaching and to engage and inspire the children.

“Pupils showed fantastic science enquiry skills in our recent science fair - seeing their excitement and passion was like a whole extra award on top.”

Ms Boaz was initially inspired to become a teacher after a flight to Greece during which she was sat next to a five-year-old passenger who spent the whole flight asking questions such as “how do planes fly?” and “what are clouds made from?”

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The teacher realised how much she enjoyed answering them and called Oxford Brookes from Greece to apply for a late admission to do a PGCE.

In addition to receiving a £1000 prize, winners automatically become a Fellow of the PSTT College where they can access many resources including annual funding in excess of £500,000 to develop new projects and further professional development.

Ms Boaz recently led the organisation of science fairs in schools that culminated in a South Oxfordshire Science Fair Grand final held at Rutherford Appleton Laboratories.

Prior to joining Charlton Primary School, Ms Boaz taught in several schools and was a Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and is now the Vale Academy Trust’s Specialist STEM Teacher.    

Steven Rose, executive head at Charlton Primary School, said: “I was delighted but not surprised to hear that Cat Boaz is a winner of this award.

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“This recognises the incredibly innovative and creative science work taking place at Charlton and across the trust led by Cat.

“She is passionate about raising standards, inspiring colleagues and making science excel. A key driver and ethos behind Ms Boaz’s approach is the firm belief that pupils should be engaged and fascinated by science and that as part of this, science should have a high profile within the curriculum.”

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This story was written by Gee Harland. She joined the team in 2022 as a senior multimedia reporter.

Gee covers Wallingford, Wantage and Didcot.

Get in touch with her by emailing: Gee.harland@newsquest.co.uk

Follow her on Twitter @Geeharland

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