Teachers are the latest North Essex Teacher Training cohort

The event was organised by North Essex Teacher Training and took place at the Tendring Education Centre, in Clacton.

Despite the pandemic, this year’s cohort were able to celebrate their success and, for some trainees, it was the first time they had met in person.

Sixty-five trainees qualified this year, many of whom will go on to work in local schools.

Training assessment tutor Leah Green said: “Training teachers in the past year has been tough.

“Our team were not always able to go into schools to see trainees regularly because training went online, rather than face-to-face.

“Nevertheless, we’ve done our best to observe as much as possible - even observing online lessons.

“We’ve also tailored the programme to suit the changes and had our ‘Zoom’ door open for anyone that just wanted a chat or reassurance.

“The trainees have worked incredibly hard to adapt to the changes.”

Despite the challenges, trainees still gained valuable experience in school.

Inspirational - Alice Hornsby

They also learnt lots of additional skills, particularly in terms of technology and online lessons.

Trainees who were brave enough competed for the accolade of Class of 2021 Super Surfer.

The fun game involved staying on a moving surfboard as long as possible.

Ami Akers smashed the competition with an impressive 35 seconds to win the “secondary” contest.

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Jess Coe managed the same time to win the “primary” competition.

* This year's NETT award winners were: the Award for Academic Excellence – Rebekah Francis, Alfred Smith; the Award for Outstanding Progress – Shannen Parsons, Michaela Antoniou-Garcia, Alex Wootton; the Award for Most Inspiring Trainee Teacher – Charlotte Goff, Alice Hornsby, Frank Bowyer.