The winners of the WEA Awards 2022, hosted by the Workers’ Educational Association, have been announced at a parliamentary reception at the House of Lords on 19 October 2022.

The annual awards celebrate the achievements of inspiring adult learners and the high-quality support provided by tutors. This year, students and tutors received awards across nine different categories. The awards were sponsored by the Skills and Education Group and FE Week.

Lorna Poole, who teaches the choir at Nottingham Women’s Centre, was among the winners, receiving the WEA Inspirational Teaching Award sponsored by the Skills and Education Group. Through her role, Lorna supports women who have faced challenging situations to recover their voices and enjoy singing together.

Lorna has worked in a variety of tutoring roles at the WEA, previously teaching creative writing and IT courses before starting to run the choir. She now teaches a range of music courses at the WEA too.

In a video for the WEA Awards, Lorna spoke about her pride in her students and the great feeling of seeing them progress from being uncertain to “blown away by what they’d achieved”. The choir now performs at local events, including the International Women’s Day celebrations in Nottingham, with Lorna’s tutoring helping students to improve their confidence as well as their singing.

Speaking about the awards and Lorna’s achievement, Paul Eeles, Chief Executive of the Skills and Education Group, said:

“The WEA Awards are one of the highlights of the calendar in the world of adult education. This year’s event was a great occasion, with so many inspiring stories from learners and tutors. As an organisation that champions education and skills providers and the impact they make, all of us at Skills and Education Group are very proud to support these awards.

“I would like to offer my congratulations to all of the winners, with a special mention for Lorna Poole, winner of the Inspirational Teaching Award. It was fantastic to hear about how Lorna’s teaching is helping the students in her choir to increase their confidence and find joy in their singing after experiencing real challenges in life. She is a deserving winner of this award.”

You can read about all the winners of the WEA Awards 2022 here.