A BURNLEY headteacher has been crowned the best in the North West at the regional award ceremony for excellence in education.

Stephen Ball, head of Ivy Bank Business and Enterprise College, Burnley, came top of the class by winning the Promethean Award for School Leadership in a Secondary School.

He won a prize package worth more than £3,000 for the school and will join 11 other winners at the teaching Awards 2003 National Ceremony in October.

The modest English specialist, who has been in teaching for 25 years and helped lead the school to become one of the first specialist colleges in the country, now holds a ticket to the star-studded televised final in London. This year a record 3,892 teachers, headteachers and deputies, as well as other support staff, were nominated by parents, colleagues, pupils and parents for the awards which were launched five years ago.

Colin Williamson, who teaches history at Haslingden High School in Broadway, Rossendale, was also highly commended as Teacher of the Year in a Secondary School as was Kim Burton, based at Darwen Moorland High School in Holden Fold, Darwen, who had been short-listed for Teaching Assistant of the Year.

Mr Ball now goes forward for the national awards worth more than £25,000.

The delighted head, nicknamed Bobby by his fellow colleagues, was delighted just to have been short listed from the hundreds of schools in the North West.

"I never expected to win this and felt quite embarrassed," he said. "Now I feel ten feet tall.

"Eight or nine years ago the school was quite low achieving with exam results but those have improved and the school is now very forward looking.

"The school had always had bags and bags of potential but that had to be worked with.

"After I became headteacher I was able to appoint some first rate teachers and I regard this award as very much a team effort."