A North East teacher has won a national award for tackling a hidden barrier to learning.
Sean Harris, from Tees Valley Education in Middlesbrough, has been recognised by UK education charity SHINE through its Let Teachers SHINE programme, and is one of just eight winners nationwide.
The teacher has received £20,000 to develop Right To Rest, an initiative addressing "sleep inequality"- a form of sleep hardship that affects a child's ability to learn and thrive in the classroom.
Mr Harris said: "Research estimates are that around 900,000 children experience sleep hardship nationally.
"That can be anything from disrupted routines to quite simply not having a bed, in some cases sleeping on the floor, or sharing a bed, or overcrowded bedrooms, and so on. Yet we know many of these issues are structural."
Right To Rest reframes sleep hardship not as the result of poor choices at home, but as a complex issue shaped by wider social and economic factors.
The initiative places importance on listening to children’s experiences and allowing them to help shape the support they receive based on individual needs.
Mr Harris said: "We serve communities facing significant challenges. For example, in the North East there are over 40 per cent of children that are in poverty and about 70 per cent of families locally that are experiencing work poverty.
"These are families who remain in significant financial hardship despite having one or more parents in paid work.
"If we can further tackle sleep hardship, it’s going to help children be ready to learn in classrooms, which then supports attendance, behaviour, belonging and all those other important aspects of a child’s life."
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Through the scheme, pupils learn about the value of quality sleep and help design resources to raise awareness for both children and the wider community.
Schools can refer families in need to the sleep charity Zarach, who can provide beds immediately to those who need them.
Additionally, teaching staff are encouraged to become "sleep champions", balancing high expectations with empathy.
Mr Harris believes the project could influence practice beyond the Tees Valley, saying: "Schools need to think beyond what we do in the classroom in order to tackle and dismantle the kind of inequalities we’re seeing."
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