Sugar Rushed: North East Teacher of the Year 2015 #intumetrocentre

When I was sent the details of this competition, North East Teacher of the Year 2015, being run by intuMetrocentre and intuEldonsquare I knew immediately I had to enter and nominate my son Archie's teacher, Mr Denton!

This time last year I was a nervous wreck, my (not so) little boys first day of school was only a summer away and we were at a welcome meeting to look around the school and find out who his teacher would be. I really couldn't tell you where, from a tiny newborn that 4 years had gone though. I now had a bright, extremely chatty big boy who was desperate for school and despite all my excitement at the prospect of someone else helping me to answer the 3628 questions...all usually before 11am, it somehow felt like I was starting school again!

How did we go from this...

To this?!

Another concern I had was, that the year previous to this we had lived in Texas with my husbands job so he hadn't attended the local nursery and therefore wouldn't know anyone in the class either. Not to mention the Kindergarten Archie went to was very small and they actually called him 'Little Prince William'...yanks adore the British accent so he had been somewhat lavished with attention too. I should also say that this was my old Primary school as well and although a lot more modern now (do you know kids have i pads?) it is essentially identical...de ja vu doesn't even cover it.

I hadn't really considered the emotions that would be involved though in handing my boy over to someone for the whole day...5 days a week. Despite Archie always being very independent he is still my baby and we had just finished a huge adventure in a different country together, he's also one of my best friends. I didn't need to worry a jot though, when we walked into the meeting there was a selection of staff but we were split into the two class's and as soon as Mr Denton came over to say hi, I knew he was the one!

I'm not sure why I didn't expect a male teacher but when he started chatting about football and Ninja Turtles I couldn't have been happier. On his first day Archie didn't even kiss me goodbye, so excited to start in "Mr Denton's class" Since that day he has gone from strength to strength thanks to his fab teacher and he loves school so much. Mr Denton is always on hand for any queries or concerns too, nothing is too much and I was so touched that after the first week he made a point of saying how "Archie had fit in fantastically and no one would have guessed he didn't known anyone" as it had been on my mind.

Mr Denton is warm, accessible, enthusiastic and caring. He has made Archie feel so welcome and always goes that extra mile, I know that he does this this for each and every child in the class though, all 31 of them! Infact Mr D...as we now call him is a bit of a hero in our house, he holds that much power. If Archie is acting him self all I have to say is "Shall I tell Mr Denton" and that soon shifts the mood...I'm quite jealous of the power actually. Even our youngest son Oscar has a total worship thing going on for Mr D, where he has to ask or show him something everyday at drop off but he always makes the time. He even made Oscar come into the class room on his birthday so all the boys and girls could sing Happy Birthday, you can imagine Oscar was proud as punch.

As my boys school year is nearly over (honestly got goose bumps there) I will be really sad that Archie is moving on from Mr Denton's class, he has not just academically leap frogged but he has also matured and become so confident as well with lots of friends now. So thank you for such a fantastic first school year Mr Denton, anyone can see this is more than a job to you so without a doubt you are, our Best Teacher of the Year 2015!

Oscar had to get in with one of
his favourite people!