Judges of Bermuda's first National Teacher of the Year competition are going through 14 nominations to find the Island's most exceptional educator.

Three to five finalists will be chosen within the next few days and the winner will be announced in June.

Pupils, parents, school staff and members of the community were invited to nominate teachers, or members of school staff, who they thought did more than their job in educating and bringing out the best in children.

The Bermuda College Centre for Education launched the contest in the hope that it would provide some reward and motivation for hard working staff.

The college's Gina Tucker said she was delighted with the number of nominations and the exceptionally high standard of the nominees.

"It is certainly going to be a challenge to find the finalists, let alone the winner,'' Dr. Tucker said.

"Teachers have been nominated for a variety of reasons, including an ability to motivate children, participating in school activities, working with parents and working endless hours.

"But we know that there are a lot of teachers out there who deserved to be nominated and haven't been. Hopefully, next year they will be.'' Dr. Tucker said the college contacted all of the nominees to make sure they wanted to be included in the competition.

Out of the 18 nominated, 14 were willing to participate. Now it is their turn to explain to the judges why they think they should win the award.

Following their explanations, the finalists will be chosen and then interviewed.

The person selected as the overall winner will receive a number of awards, including the opportunity to attend the next meeting of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, which is one of the most highly recognised conferences for professional educators in the world.

A number of sponsors have offered prizes, for both the teacher and her class, and the main supporter of the contest is TeleBermuda International Limited.

This year the competition is not open to private sector staff but organisers are looking at the possibility of branching out into that field at a later date.

An independent panel of educators and community leaders, including a student from the college, are judging the competition.

Dr. Tucker added: "It's the first year we have done this, so we think we have had a pretty good number of entries.

"We are expecting this competition to continue for several years, so look forward to many others being nominated in the future.'' AWARDS AWD