A MEMBER of staff at an Altrincham school has been given an award which makes the world her oyster.

The Churchill Fellowship has gone to Loreto Grammar School's multi award winning STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) co-ordinator, Elaine Manton.

It entitles her to free travel and living expenses worldwide to study successful projects overseas which may benefit the UK.

The fellowship also opens the door to key policy makers overseas and will allow Elaine, from Appleton, access to both their planning and implementation phases. She aims to use the fund to study both in the USA and Australia.

Elaine, said: “Recently, the idea of adding the arts to STEM programmes has been gaining momentum in the USA. I am very keen to see this in practice in schools in the UK, but without diluting the primary mission.”

Elaine said: “In the same way VET (Vocational Education and Training) has been seen to have a positive economic role in up-skilling and integrating young people into the labour market in Australia and has successfully provided high quality technical skills for traditional and emerging industries.”

Alongside organising the STEM provision at Loreto which includes running voluntary sessions for some 50 young women aged from 11 to 18 who attend her STEM clubs for both lunch and after school sessions, Elaine has a glittering CV on the national stage.

She is one of only 12 expert STEM teachers in the UK. She is a UK Scientix Ambassador, a British Council ambassador for eTwinning and UK National prize winner in 2017 for the Category: Erasmus; STEM through eTwinning, given for sharing best practice across Europe.

She was awarded the Teen Tech Teacher U.K. of the Year in 2014 and has made Loreto one of only six schools in the UK to be awarded the Teen Tech Centre of Innovation and Creativity Gold standard.

In addition she was also the only teacher to be invited to sit on a European wide panel of policy making experts looking at 'Skilling Up the Next Generation for an Innovative Europe.'

Elaine said: “I am hugely honoured to have been awarded the Churchill Fellowship. Sir Winston is one of the greatest, if not the greatest Briton, who is revered as much overseas as he is on these shores.”

“I want to study the exciting innovations in the USA and Australia and be able to report back on ideas we could successfully implement here, especially to enable young women and those from less privileged backgrounds to make more impact in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics related careers.

“I am particularly proud to receive the fellowship in the year that is officially known in the UK as the Year of Engineering.”