A Newtownabbey school that had been facing closure almost a decade ago has won a prestigious teaching award.
Rathcoole Primary School and Nursery Unit was selected from thousands of nominations to win a Pearson National Teaching Silver Award.
The school received the Silver Award for Early Years Team of the Year for their outstanding commitment to changing the lives of the children they work with every day.
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Principal Emma Quinn took over the school eight years ago while it was facing the prospect of closure and has worked to turn the school's fortunes around.
"We had a high level of SEN need and to be honest we were looking at closure," she said.
"When I took over, I had the joy of having really good staffing in the 'early years' setting and with that team, that drive and that vision to work towards what we wanted the early years, it has taken the guts of the eight years to get here."
Emma said that the early years programmes that the school have implemented allow for a lot of engagement time with the children, but also put the school at the heart of the community.
"A lot of the work we do is actually for the community and we talk about when we get a child in, we get a family in.
"We offer a wrap around support for families because we believe in every child's potential whether they have SEN, have a wellbeing need or other issues or challenges.
"We are never afraid to think outside the box and take risks which involves a lot of in the moment planning."
Rathcoole Primary School pride themselves on being "more than just a school" and among the support offered to families of students are daily check-ins with parents at drop off and pick up times or via ClassDojo, bringing nursery children over to the main school to get them used to the setting and inviting parents to join in on some STEM classes.
The school also assist parents in applying for additional funding or filling out online applications when required while providing wellbeing support for parents including mental health first aid and suicide awareness training.
"Some of the stand out nominations for the award came from parents of our nursery children who talked about how the school has helped them turn their lives around," Emma said.
"They said that we gave them the confidence to know that they are positive parents and to ask when they need help.
"One of them has recently chosen a change of career path over the last couple of months because of the support that she has been given."
Emma said that the nominations for this award were led by the early years team who took ownership of it by getting parents involved.
"The staff are always keen to learn and bring forward new ideas but more importantly to do what is best for the children," she added.
"I have taught here for over 25 years and it would have been very easy to walk away but we have stuck with the school and eight years later, to be in the position that we are is an absolute credit to the staff and community for sticking with us and it has been a privilege to work with the families of our children to be able to do that."
The team have now been shortlisted to win one of just 16 Gold Awards, which will be announced and celebrated at a gala ceremony in London on 25th November and televised on the BBC, with winners showcased on The One Show.
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