GOOD teachers make a lasting difference to young lives. They inspire and they are remembered for years to come.

Unfortunately, bad teachers make headlines more often than good ones. That is partly the fault of newspapers which do not look hard enough for positive news when bad news is so much easier to find.

And it is partly the fault of the education system which has a tendency to strangle enthusiasm with red tape.

This Government has put more money into education - of that there is no doubt - but greater bureaucracy has come with it and pure teaching too often has to make way for an obsession with targets and league tables.

Today, however, it is the headlines have been claimed by good teachers - the winners of the Teaching Awards 2000, announced in London.

The "teaching Oscars" are in their second year and we welcome the fact that the momentum has continued from the inaugural year. It is important to highlight the commitment and talent which exists in a profession which is so crucial to the country's future but has been taken too much for granted.

We congratulate all those who collected awards last night, particularly those from our region: Classroom Assistant of the Year, Denise Murray, from Beaumont Hill Special School in Darlington; and Secondary Teacher of the Year, Cathy Roberts, from St Aiden's Church of England School in Harrogate.

We do so in the full knowledge that there are many more "unsung heroes" in schools up and down the country.

They can't all be placed in the spotlight - but their reward is the knowledge that their efforts will bear fruit for decades ahead.

JOY Gilmour, the mother of murder victim Julie Smailes, has revealed to The Northern Echo that she is leaving Consett, the town which has been her home for all her life.

The tragic reality, however, is that wherever she goes she will never escape the pain of losing her daughter in such an horrific and unexplained way.

Seeing the killer or killers brought to justice will not make that pain go away, but it might make it more manageable.

Today, on the fourth anniversary of Julie's murder, we join the police in appealing for any information which may help solve this sickening crime.