GORLESTON teacher Richard Stockings was the toast of Twickenham on Tuesday after being honoured at the Norwich Union School Sport Matters Awards.The 37-year-old Cliff Park High School teacher was highly commended in the School Sport Teacher of the Year category and received his award from Beijing Olympic gold medallist Tim Brabants.

GORLESTON teacher Richard Stockings was the toast of Twickenham on Tuesday after being honoured at the Norwich Union School Sport Matters Awards.

The 37-year-old Cliff Park High School teacher was highly commended in the School Sport Teacher of the Year category and received his award from Beijing Olympic gold medallist Tim Brabants.

A host of Olympic and Paralympic gold medallists past and present - including Christine Ohuruogu, Dame Kelly Holmes, David Weir and Eleanor Simmonds - rubbed shoulders with Stockings who is in his fifteenth year at the school.

The director of sports specialism admitted receiving his accolade from Brabants was the icing on the cake of a perfect day. “It is a great honour to be recognised personally and to receive the award from such a great sportsman like Tim adds to the occasion,” he said. “We recently had our best ever exam results and I believe that was because of our dedication to sport.

“Academically we are improving all the time and we have a great pool of individuals and teams who are achieving success. My main sport in football and we have a great academy set up at the school and we also have close links with Norwich as part of the double club scheme.

“We are developing the standard of teaching all the time and the reports we get back from the kids is great and we really put their ideas into practice.”

Brabants, who won the Kayak K-1 1000m title and 500m bronze in Beijing, was full of praise for Stockings' services to school sport.

The annual Norwich Union and Daily Telegraph School Sport Matters Awards recognise outstanding achievements in school sport across the country, and are part of Norwich Union's wider commitment to getting 15 million children active by 2012.

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