A CHESTER and an Ellesmere Port school are both in the running for national awards.

Ellesmere Port Catholic High School (EPCH) has been named twice in the Educate Awards 2020 shortlist.

The school has been shortlisted for the Careers & Enterprise Award and the WOW Recognition Award.

Judges were particularly impressed by EPCH’s commitment to students during the first lockdown. Michael Hughes, assistant headteacher for personal development, launched a Virtual Work Experience Week for Year 10s in which they got to take part in a timetable of activities, based upon a set of live, interactive experiences with six companies in the area.

Furthermore, judges were wowed by the school’s joint venture with 4wardfutures that inspired the young minds of Year 7 and Year 8 students. The aim of the project was to engage students in the visualisation and the construction of Life on Mars.

Each day guest speakers from across the field of space engineering and creative arts, shared with students their knowledge and understanding with the narrative of getting to Mars.

Meanwhile, A governor at Queen’s Park High School in Chester has been named in the Educate Awards 2020 shortlist.

Katye Parleviet has been shortlisted for the School Governor of the Year Award – a new category for this year.

She was nominated by headteacher Lyndsay Watterson for her outstanding contribution to the Handbridge-based school.

In the entry, Miss Watterson detailed how Kayte has been the leader of the governing body for the past four years.

She wrote: “Teamwork is Kayte’s passion and undeniable strength. She has an understated ability to empower all members of her team to lead and support them to drive their plans forward: all of this delivered with incredible calmness and control.

"Kayte has phenomenal drive and is always pushing for excellence within the governing body and the wider school community.”

The awards, in partnership with Copyrite Systems and Ricoh, is in its ninth year and is the largest education awards in the North West.

Due to the pandemic, the ceremony has been postponed until further notice but the team behind the event are keen to continue and raise spirits within in the education sector.

Despite the difficult times, a record amount of schools and colleges from around the region entered one or more of the 21 categories.

From inspiring teachers, dedicated support staff to innovative projects across the curriculum, the awards recognises the work of schools and colleges which are delivering outstanding education and helping students achieve their full potential, even during these unprecedented times.

Since launching in Liverpool in 2012, the awards has grown rapidly, recognising schools and colleges right across the Liverpool City Region, Cheshire, Lancashire and Greater Manchester.

Kim O’Brien, founder of the Educate Awards, said: “It has been a really tough year for everyone and so we felt it was more important than ever to shine a spotlight on the heroes of the education sector and all the hard work that goes on in schools and colleges around the North West.

Kim added: “The calibre of entries we received were incredibly strong - our judges will really have their work cut out when deciding on the winners!”

Associate sponsors of the awards include: All About STEM, Angel Solutions, CareersInc, CER, CPMM Media Group, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool Diocesan Schools Trust, LSSP, Satis Education, SupplyWell and Winstanley College.