Teachers and pupils deserve an award – but who is your Moray and Banffshire hero?
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Homeschooling has changed the way our children are being educated during the coronavirus lockdown and probably well beyond.
But the hard work of teachers and the achievements of pupils continues despite the unprecedented challenges faced by both groups, not to mention parents.
The Moray and Banffshire Heroes 2020 has four awards for education: primary teacher and secondary teacher of the year, as well as primary pupil and secondary pupil of the year.
The category winners will be those who have done something special, perhaps in recent months during which education has been such a challenge.
The awards, organised by Highland News and Media, are looking for teachers - one at primary level and one at secondary - who have made a significant difference, beyond the normal expectations, to the learning experience of their pupils.
Perhaps they have embraced new technology to maintain high-quality lessons for all of their classes, helped pupils who need extra support at home or put themselves at risk during the Covid-19 pandemic by teaching children of key workers at one of the education hubs.
In the pupil categories, judges are looking for a pupil who has achieved something beyond expectations in education, sport or helping others at school.
The primary pupil award is sponsored by Forsyths, while UHI Moray College is supporting the secondary pupil accolade. Developing the Young Workforce Moray is backing the primary teacher prize and the secondary teacher trophy is sponsored by AJ Engineering.
There is still time to get your nominations in for these and other categories at the Moray and Banffshire Heroes awards before the deadline of midnight on Saturday, June 6.
Readers can nominate their heroes in any of the 12 categories by filling in the newspaper form below and posting it to Moray & Banffshire Heroes, Highland News & Media, New Century House, Stadium Road, Inverness, IV1 1FG.
Or, you can email your nominations, giving all the required details, to morayheroes@hnmedia.co.uk
Readers can also nominate their heroes online at www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/MorayHeroes20
After the nominations close, our judging panel will draw up a shortlist from each category which will be published in a special supplement later in the summer.
Readers will then be able to vote for their choice in each of the categories, with the winners announced at an awards ceremony currently scheduled to take place on Thursday, September 3, at the Mansefield Hotel in Elgin.
