CLASSROOM assistant Anne Bell has beaten stiff competition to make it through to the national final of this year's Teaching Awards.

CLASSROOM assistant Anne Bell has beaten stiff competition to make it through to the national final of this year's Teaching Awards.

The learning support assistant is one of 14 South-East regional winners who will join 150 other teachers from across the UK.

Ms Bell, who has already received £3,500 for being a regional winner, stands to win £20,000 for her college if she wins the final at the national ceremony, which is being held at The Millennium Dome on October 29.

Ms Bell was nominated by teachers, parents, and pupils at The Chalfonts Community College, in Narcot Lane, Chalfont St Peter, where she has been responsible for physically disabled and hearing-impaired students for 12 years.

A school spokesman said: 'The needs of the students are her very first priority. When full integration is not possible, she devises individual programmes of work designed to maximise their capabilities.

'She has also developed a wealth of knowledge about many kinds of physical disability, much to the students' benefit.'

The teaching awards were conceived to celebrate the vital role that teachers play in the community.