South Cumbria Multi-Academy Trust is celebrating a hat-trick of county-wide education award nominations for its member schools.

Chetwynde School and Ormsgill Primary and Nursery School are in the running for prestigious Golden Apple Education Awards, which celebrate the best of education in Cumbria.

Chetwynde has been shortlisted for Secondary School of the Year while its pupil Nathan-Lee Cheong is a finalist in the Student of the Year category.

The Hive team at Ormsgill Primary and Nursery School, which supports pupils with educational healthcare plans, has been shortlisted for best inclusion initiative.

Welcoming the news, SCMAT Chief Executive Professor Andrew Wren said: “We are delighted that the quality of education in our schools, achievements of pupils and the incredible efforts our staff are making is being recognised at this level.

“There are significant challenges across the board in education at the moment and to see the way we are responding to these as a Trust in innovative ways is positive for our pupils, their education and the communities they serve.”

Chetwynde School was nominated for the remarkable progress it has made over the past few years culminating in its first ever good grade from Ofsted.

School leaders had worked with SCMAT to bring it out of a financial notice to improve and it has now gone from strength-to-strength with Ofsted judging the school ‘good in all areas’ in an overwhelmingly positive report.

Nathan Lee Cheong, who is in the running for Student of the Year, was described as a pupil who ‘comes along once in a lifetime of teaching’.

The Chetwynde pupil’s academic ability is said to match his commitment to the whole school community and this summer he has earned a place in a prestigious national maths summer school.

Meanwhile as national challenges to Special Educational Needs funding have forced educators to come up with new and innovative ways of supporting pupils, Ormsgill Primary and Nursery School has introduced a new initiative.

The Hive is a facility staff have developed on site to enable SEN children to fully access a mainstream curriculum, which is adapted to meet their needs.

It helps the children to thrive through two 1-hour weekly sessions with access to sensory, life skills, fine and gross motor, reading, numeracy, writing and arts and crafts as well as Lego therapy.

Winners in this year’s Golden Apple Awards will announced in a glittering ceremony on Thursday, October 10 at the Castle Green Hotel, Kendal.