Click to see how our staff and students did when they represented our Academy at this year's DfE National Teaching Awards in London.

Over the weekend at the end of the half term holidays students and staff from Macmillan Academy attended an all expenses paid weekend to London for the national final of the DfE Teaching Awards.

Earlier in the year the Academy had returned victorious, with a silver plato, as North Regional Final winners; Sustainable School of the Year.

The London trip was a much more lavish affair with over 87 regional finalists competing for just one of 12 'gold' platos and national recognition for their hard work. The Park Plaza Westminster was our hotel for the weekend and being centrally located gave us every opportunity to see the sights of the City, for the little free time we had.

After checking in to our rooms, on the Saturday, we made a quick dash across the river to enjoy a matinee theatre trip. We had dinner out that evening followed by a tour of Westminster with a private guide (otherwise known as Mr McCallum!). Returning to the hotel we then spent time rehearsing potential speeches, as we had been told to do by the BBC, in the light of us possibly winning. Sleep was restless, nerves were kicking in and meeting the 'competition' who were all in the same hotel was becoming a regular occurrence in the lifts and public areas!

A rainy Sunday morning saw us visit the London Eye, buy some souvenirs and feed the chocolate to a policeman on duty in the garden at the rear of Downing Street. We returned in time to get ready for our trip to The Drury Lane Theatre and the Teaching Awards ceremony. Lenny Henry was hosting the event and nerves were increasing by the second, as the cameras rolled on these live awards.

All of a sudden it was 'our category', Sustainable School of the Year! Mr McCallum had a camera man directly in front of him just as Lenny began to read out the description of the winning school and then the cameraman disappeared! Total disappointment! It was not us! We continued to smile as the gold plato went to a Primary School in the Midlands, and we were to leave London empty handed.

On reflection, the weekend was a fantastic experience and one that we feel honoured to have taken part in we must remember that we are still successful and have represented the North, and Middlesbrough, and were victorious as the Northern Regional winner for Sustainable School of the Year 2010.