Educating Cardiff's Joy Ballard wins head teaching award

The head teacher who rose to fame in the Channel 4 television series Educating Cardiff has won a head teacher of the year award.

Joy Ballard scooped the Plato trophy at the Pearson Teaching Awards ceremony in London on Sunday evening in the secondary head teachers' category.

Mrs Ballard is credited with making Willows High School in Cardiff one of Wales' most improved schools.

After three years there, she now runs an academy in the Isle of Wight.

The awards are given to 11 teachers in different categories.

Pearson called Mrs Ballard an "outstanding head teacher who has brought new life to a school which needed a fresh vision to improve the lives of its pupils and its community".

Mrs Ballard left school with no qualifications but was inspired to become a teacher when she returned to education as an adult.

One of her students at Willows said: "A few years ago, it was definitely not cool to do well at our school. Now we all help each other."

The Pearson awards were founded in 1998 by Lord Puttnam to celebrate excellence in education.

The ceremony was presented by Dan Snow

The ceremony will be broadcast as "Britain's Classroom Heroes" on BBC2 at 18:00 GMT on Sunday 25 October 2015.