If you decide to send your child to Michelle Caesar's Devonshire pre-school, be prepared to get an education yourself.

The 42-year old headteacher and co-owner of Aerie's Adventure Nursery and Pre-School — who has just won an international excellence award for teaching — believes parents can have as much to learn as their offspring.

"I involve the whole family," she told The Royal Gazette. "It's not just I'm teaching their children, it's that I'm teaching the whole family. No matter what goes on in the child's life, I am in the child's life."

It's that kind of passion which has led to Ms Caesar, from Somerset, picking up the International Excellence Award for Teachers in Early Childhood Education from the Heritage International Scholarship Trust Foundation.

The award is presented annually to teachers in Bermuda, Jamaica and the Bahamas who have made significant contributions to education in their community.

Ms Caesar discovered she was the winner of the $1,000 award on February 4 — the day before her birthday. "I did not know I had been nominated," she said. "I got this phone call and I was like: 'woah, I won, praise the Lord!'."

A telephone call on the same date four years before had also proved fortuitous. On that day, Ms Caesar was contacted by the New Creation Church about a building in Devonshire which she had viewed many years before with the idea of opening a school there.

The church told her it had bought the Middle Road property from Cable and Wireless and asked if she wanted to start a daycare facility for youngsters under the umbrella of its non-profit, faith-based Aerie Foundation.

Ms Caesar and her sister Lynn Ball, the school's accountant, jumped at the chance and Aerie's Adventure Nursery and Pre-School opened there in January 2005.

The tiny private school began with six students and now has 35 youngsters aged between two and five. Ms Caesar was nominated for the teaching award by parents Donte and Kelly Hunt, whose five-year-old daughter Annalise attends Aerie's.

Mr. Hunt, an Opposition MP, said: "She is a passionate teacher. It is evident that she enjoys and, more importantly, cherishes the role she assumes. I am very appreciative of her skill, passion and knowledge."

His wife said: "Michelle has not only won the hearts of her students, but as a parent she has also won mine. I am thrilled to have her as my daughter's teacher."

Ms Caesar's love of teaching was sparked when she was 14 and helped out at a summer camp. She went on to work at Mount St. Agnes, Rise and Shine and Bermuda Montessori.

She said she felt honoured by her award and puts her success down to her love of children. "I treat them with respect and love and I give them time," she said. "The best thing you can give your child is time, to listen and talk to them."

Ms Caesar plans to put part of her award towards a playground for the school, whose name is derived from the fact that "learning is an adventure and we are always going on an adventure".

Charles Jeffers, Bermuda agency director for Heritage, an organisation dedicated to helping parents save for their child's post-secondary education, said: "Educators like Michelle Caesar make a tremendous impact on both children and their families. It is our pleasure to publicly recognise her important role."

To nominate an early childhood teacher (pre-school to grade four) for next year's award visit www.heritageesp.com.