SCHOOL head Catherine Myers has been named London’s Headteacher of the Year’ and been hailed as a mind-blowing dynamo of a woman.’ The 64-year-old executive head at the East End’s Bishop Challenor Catholic Collegiate Secondary has won the prestigious Royal Air Force award—beating 500 head-teachers all over London

By Dean Valler

SCHOOL head Catherine Myers has been named London's 'Headteacher of the Year' and been hailed as a 'mind-blowing dynamo of a woman.'

The 64-year-old executive head at the East End's Bishop Challenor Catholic Collegiate Secondary has won the prestigious Royal Air Force award-beating 500 head-teachers all over London.

She has been head for 17 years at the now-expanded 'Learning Village' in Shadwell, just off the Commercial Road, which includes both boys' and girls' schools and a sixthform centre.

Judges at the awards ceremony at the Central Hall in Westminster yesterday said: "You would never imagine that under that calm, serene exterior lies a powerful and mind-blowing dynamo of a woman.

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"She showed us her three splendid schools all under one roof-a jewel in the heart of East London. It was awesome."

Her pupils at Bishop Challenor speak a total of 73 languages. She has even received an award from the Lithuanian government for her work with pupils coming from the Baltic republic.

"It was quite nerve-wracking to have the judges come round and observe what you're doing day-to-day," she told the East London Advertiser.

"To be judged the best out of 500 schools in London is a great and humbling honour."

Mrs Myers was also praised by judges for helping push through a �40 million school expansion, which included protracted court battles over land rights at Catholic burial grounds to make way for construction.