Theale Green Community Schoolteacher, Mr Simon Badcock, has been named the Dyson Design and Technology Teacher of the Year.

Mr Badcock was presented the Dyson Design and Technology Teacher of the Year award at the Design and Technology Association (DATA) Millennium Conference at the Institute of Education in London this April. James Dyson personally presented Mr Badcock with a certificate to commemorate his achievement, a signed copy of his book ‘Doing a Dyson’ and an autographed Dyson vacuum cleaner.

Mr Badcock was chosen for this national award for his work in transforming a traditional department into a fully integrated, highly dynamic and very successful department. The department has developed a national reputation for its annual exhibition of work and introduction of new technologies, especially computer-related work.

Simon Badcock is currently the Co-ordinator of Technology Education at Theale Green . Mr Badcock has been departmental head for 11 years. He was trained at the University of London and the College of St Mark and St John Plymouth.

The department was chosen to represent the secondary sector nationally at an exhibition at the NEC in 1998. Mr Badcock was chosen for the Toplink program, funded by the Design Council. In December 1999 he had a major feature article in the Times Educational Supplement on CAD/CAM. He also featured in an article on training technology teachers in the Guardian in April. The department is part of the DfEE CAD/CAM in Schools Initiative. Mr Badcock is an Accredited Trainer for Pro/DESKTOP and Art/CAM Pro which are two major pieces of software being released as part of the CAD/CAM initiative and he is a Teacher Consultant for West Berkshire.