He was determined, passionate about teaching, and brave. You can read more about Danny here.

This year, the trainee chosen to receive the award in memory of Danny is Mae Allan, an English teacher who completed with Mid Essex ITT at Honywood School.

Mae's proud course tutor Stewart Haines, was delighted to present her with the award at our annual awards evening.

On presenting the award to Mae, he said: "Resilience is a term that is used all the time in education at the moment. We want our students to show us they have it and that they can face challenging situations with the ‘right’ mindset. We also use it with our trainees – I’m sure the ECTs from last year that are sat in front of me will agree, as will the families and friends who have witnessed the long evenings full of planning, the assignment writing, the marking – they have all had to be resilient to varying degrees throughout this academic year, and will need to continue to be resilient throughout their teaching careers. Danny showed huge levels of perseverance to achieve his goal of becoming an English teacher and MEITT were privileged to help him to achieve this. This award is not just in recognition of the need for resilience, but more to celebrate and recognise those of us who face challenge and still manage to maintain the enthusiasm and ability to foster it in others.  

"This year, I am honoured to present the Danny Audritt Award to one of my tutor group. This particular trainee demonstrated a strong work ethic and commitment to the profession from day one. They were conscientious when it came to completing MEITT work, which resulted in them producing outstanding school-based tasks and deadlines being met regularly. In the classroom this trainee was simply brilliant to watch, demonstrating strong modelling skills, supportive scaffolding techniques, and regular formative assessment opportunities. In addition to this, they also had the most desirable qualities that all trainees mention in their professional dialogues when asked ‘what is one of your strengths?’…a fantastic relationship with their students. This trainee was also very receptive to feedback and was more than willing to complete some deliberate practice in order to improve as a teacher.

"Not only has this trainee demonstrated what a fantastic practitioner they are, but they have also managed this alongside some personal challenging circumstances as well. To say that managing your workload and time in your teacher training year is difficult is probably putting it a little lightly. I’m not sure if I had mentioned this or not last year but I had my first child on the first day of term in September. I now truly understand what time management is and how hard it is to balance family life and teaching, and to do this so well from day one at the age of the trainee receiving this award is truly impressive.

"Over the Christmas period this trainee lost one of their closest family members, something that would truly knock anyone for six. They had to start at a new school, a totally different environment to what they are used to, and somehow hold it together to continue to progress through the course. Things were made more difficult in this time when her mentor at her B placement took an extended period of time off due to a bereavement, leaving her without a mentor in her first couple of weeks at her new placement. Needless to say, this trainee showed incredible resilience to persevere throughout the course and become a truly outstanding trainee.

"We are all confident that this ECT has a bright and successful career ahead of her, having a huge impact on the lives of generations to come.

"The trainee who we would like to award the 2023 Danny Audritt award to is: Mae Allen."