TWO North-East teachers were last night named among the best in Britain at a glitzy ceremony dubbed the Oscars of the teaching world.

The red carpet was out and the champagne flowing at London's Theatre Royal, in Drury Lane, for the Teaching Awards 2001 ceremony, hosted by TV presenter Carol Smillie, which celebrates the most outstanding teachers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Among those picking up prizes, known as Platos, were Sue Hyland, headteacher of Houghton Kepier school, in Houghton-le-Spring, and Barbara Robinson, of Blakeston Community School, Stockton.

Celebrities such as actress Joanna Lumley and footballer Sol Campbell were on hand to present the awards.

Ms Hyland took over as headteacher at Houghton three years ago, just days before an Ofsted report said there were "serious weaknesses" in the school.

She has since transformed the school, impressing Government inspectors.

She found out she had clinched the leadership award when Middlesbrough and England defender Gareth Southgate turned up at a school assembly to announce her success.

Ms Hyland said: "I have made sure the pupils enjoy coming to lessons and to school. Everyone who comes into the school says there is a pleasant atmosphere.

"But I don't feel like this award is just for me. It is for everyone who has worked hard in turning the school around - the staff, the governors, the parents and the pupils themselves. I am picking this prize up on behalf of the whole school."

Mrs Robinson, who has worked as a community project manager at Blakeston school since 1994, only found out last night she had won the award for working with parents and the community in an secondary school.

The area around Blakeston is a poverty-stricken unemployment blackspot, and many parents had unrewarding experiences with school.

Ms Robinson managed to encourage parents to become more involved, even running a Teacher's Assistant course with many mothers and fathers.

Judges said: "Not only has she enriched the lives of so many children and their parents, she has given them the gift of going on to enrich the lives of others too."

The BBC is due to screen the awards at 4.30pm on Sunday, on BBC1.

The awards were last night embroiled in controversy with the BBC being accused of threatening not to screen the awards unless organisers employed celebrities to present them.

Harrogate MP and Liberal Democrat spokesman for education, Phil Willis, boycotted the ceremony, along with his daughter, Rachel Willis, who plays Connie, the TV face of Internet service provider AOL