A secondary school teacher has been celebrated after winning a countywide award.

Koray Gurur, an English teacher at Thurstable School in Maypole Road, Tiptree, received with the Students’ Choice Award at the 2019 Essex Teaching Awards.

The awards night, staged by Essex County Council, celebrated the best and most selfless teachers and staff members that work throughout schools in the county.

Thurstable headteacher Miles Bacon was proud to see one of his staff members recognised at the event.

He said: “A school cannot be excellent because it has a few brilliant individuals, though we have more than our share.

“It is teaching and care that is of consistently high quality and delivered through a shared set of values and priorities that enables us as a group of professionals to do more than could ever be expected of any of us as individuals.

“As a school we do not enter staff or ourselves for awards, as singling out a few individual staff members risks undermining the team ethos that is so important to us.

“For this reason alone, Thurstable staff do not feature often in awards lists as we are only ever nominated by unprompted parents or students.”

The awards, which are now in their sixth year, were hosted at Hylands House in Chelmsford.

Also highly commended in the primary school teacher of the year category was Sophie Hammond of Collingwood Primary School in South Woodham Ferrers.

Essex County Council education boss Ray Gooding said: “I’m delighted to have had another opportunity to celebrate the fantastic contribution our education colleagues make to the lives of children and young people across the county.

“The high number of nominations we received this year speaks volumes and each one is testament to the talent and skills we have in Essex.”