Published on:
05
July 2023
A Clackmannanshire school has just won two prestigious Tes awards.
Alva Academy won the Community Engagement Initiative of the Year award while its inspirational faculty principal teacher of music, PE, dance and art, David Clifford won the Subject Lead of the Year award.
David, who has worked at Alva Academy for almost 20 years, is a key figure in the school’s Macmillan Cancer Support fundraising group and also set up its Parkinson’s singing group five years ago following his father’s diagnosis.
The singing group has become hugely popular, both with pupils and the members living with Parkinson’s.
Firm friendships have been forged across the generations in the choir. Many former pupils still attend the weekly rehearsals cementing the family atmosphere of the group.
The singing group performs in school and in the community, including at Remembrance and Christmas, in ventures organised with Macmillan Cancer Support, helping the school raise more than £500,000 for charity over the years.
David also impressed the judges with his music-teaching initiatives, and was awarded Subject Lead of the Year (Secondary).
In his time at Alva, David has reinvigorated music education and increased engagement in the subject, as well as overseeing exceptional results by students.
He created a ‘classroom-to-care-home’ initiative in which more than 1000 students shared their performing talents with over 100 care homes across the UK and has encouraged the use of music in interdisciplinary learning experiences, including Holocaust education.
David said he was humbled to be nominated alongside the many other schools and teachers doing incredible work from all over the country.
He said: “I didn’t fully appreciate just how huge these awards are until I was at the ceremony in London.
“Alva was one of only two schools from Scotland to be nominated out of 97 across the whole of the UK and for us to win two awards is absolutely incredible.
“It didn’t sink in fully until I started receiving lots of messages afterwards. It became clear how much winning these two awards meant to the school, our colleagues and our pupils as well as the wider community.
“The school is the beating heart of the town, and the Hillfoots area as a whole, and this success reflects on them too.”
Headteacher Scott McEwan said: “To see our school being so successful on the national stage was astonishing.
“But it really shouldn’t come as a surprise as I see how much hard work, commitment and effort goes on in the school every single day.
“We want to prepare our young people for their next steps in life and encourage them to see how they can use their creativity, their imagination and their energy into making a positive difference wherever they end up in the world. These awards validate that approach.
“In terms of David’s own award, when you consider this is a British award with nine finalists and probably hundreds of other nominations, this is an outstanding achievement and is testament to David’s hard work, not only in his own department, but across the school and in the wider community.
“Every school should have a David, but other schools can’t have ours, they can get their own!”
David would like to acknowledge the support of his colleagues and headteacher Scott McEwan for supporting his many initiatives in school.
A special thanks goes to his wife Kirsty, also a teacher at Alva, and their colleague Shiona Finn for their stellar support with the Macmillan fundraising.
He added: “When James Nesbitt presented me with the individual award he gave me a hug and said he knew it meant a lot to me personally and it really does. I couldn’t have achieved any of it without the support of my mum and dad and my wife Kirsty.
“But this award is not just for me, it’s for every music learner, every musical performer and for every member of the community who has come out and supported us over the years. None of it would be possible without our fantastic, supportive community here in Alva and the Hillfoots.”
Colin Bruce, the Council’s chief education officer, said: “Alva Academy has been on an outstanding journey of improvement in recent years and I am delighted to see all of the hard work is paying off.
“I am proud to see Alva Academy has won two Times Education Supplement UK wide Awards, one for the Community Engagement Initiative and also the Secondary Subject Lead of the Year. Well done, Dave Clifford!”
“Additionally I am delighted that Alva Academy is the first mainstream school in Scotland to be awarded the Autism Inclusion Award by the National Autism Society. I am very proud to work with the amazing Alva team and I want to thank the school community for all of their hard work.”