FINALISTS have been chosen in the 2017 Golden Apple Awards, Cumbria’s premier education and learning awards.

A panel of distinguished judges met this week to sift through hundreds of nominations.

Members of the panel included first-time judges, retired headteacher Val Bairstow, who was in charge at Kirkbride Primary School near Wigton when it was named Primary School of the Year at last year’s awards, and Jennifer Foote, who is company secretary and general counsel of national training, learning and education group LTE.

Mrs Foote, a former clerk of the corporation board at Carlisle College and who lives at Hutton Roof near Penrith, was awarded an MBE in the New Year Honours for her services to further education.

They were joined by David Chesser, chief operating officer at the University of Cumbria, and Mark Bowman, chief executive of personal development and career management organisation Inspira.

The university and Inspira are associate sponsors of this year’s Golden Apple Awards.

The awards are brought to you by the CN Group team behind titles including The Cumberland News , Times & Star , The Whitehaven News , The Mail and News & Star .

Education reporter Kelly Pattison completed the line-up, with Tuesday’s judging session being facilitated by Mandy Norwood, events manager from CN Events - part of CN Group.

Kelly said: “It has been a real privilege to read through so many fantastic stories and discover more about the wonderful things going on in and around this county every single day.

“We have had a great collection of entries submitted this year which has made our job as judges extremely difficult. We’ve enjoyed some really healthy debate around the judging table.”

Judges debated nominations across 20 different categories which will honour individuals, teams, institutions in all areas of education, training and skills. Awards for students, professionals and community heroes are among those to be presented.

Kelly added: “The shortlisted finalists that will be revealed in early September will give a glimpse of the commitment, dedication and achievement that we will celebrate when the winners are revealed.”

Finalists will be invited to attend a gala event at the University of Cumbria’s campus in Fusehill Street, Carlisle, on October 6.

BAE, Lakes College and Furness College are among the organisations and firms also supporting this year’s Golden Apple Awards.