THERE was triple delight for Enfield at this year's London Teaching Awards ceremony.

Diane Stanley, from Brunswick Park School, received the TDA Award for Teaching Assistant of the Year, while there were commendations for Catherine Holt, who lives in Palmers Green, in the Special Needs Teacher of the Year category, and Chace Community School, in the DCSF Award for Sustainable Schools section.

Ms Stanley won a Plato - the Teaching Awards symbol of excellence in education - for her achievement, while Mrs Holt and Chace Community School both picked up engraved glass bowls.

Ms Stanley joined the school in Osidge Lane, Southgate, as a nursery nurse and then applied to be a learning mentor.

Now a senior learning mentor, she works with children of all ages, runs after-school clubs, is responsible for the school council, has set up a parents and toddlers group and also finds time to play the fairy at the Christmas fair.

A colleague described her as a "little factory worker who often leaves school with a box full of junk, and returns the next day with Easter bonnets".

The Platos were awarded in ten separate categories, and this year a record 8,409 nominations were made in London, with 60 per cent from pupils.

And they were handed out at a lavish awards ceremony in central London which was hosted by BBC newsreader Riz Lateef and attended by film producer Lord Puttnam, SDP Party founder Shirley Williams, broadcaster John Humphrys and Henry Winkler, who starred as smooth operator The Fonz in the 1970s hit show Happy Days.

Mrs Holt, who has only been working at Chalgrove Primary School, in Finchley, since January, said it was "very much an honour" to have been nominated for the awards by parents there.

The special needs teacher, who lives in Windsor Road, Palmers Green, has been involved in teaching for almost 30 years, and paid tribute to her head teacher Pauline Moss whose glowing personal statement was key in her being shortlisted for a Plato award.

She played down her achievement, and paid tribute to the overall category winner, saying: "I take my hat off to her. She works in a special school so is dealing with excluded children, whereas I'm in a mainstream school. It's very difficult to do better than that."

The mother of two grown-up children spoke of her love of the job, saying: "I think that all children are important as each other. They are all gifted or talented in some way."

Mrs Holt also runs a Saturday subsidiary school, called Jigsaw Learning, at Oakthorpe School, in Enfield.

She set it up two years ago to help Key Stage 1 and 2 pupils through an accelerated learning scheme using multi-sensory learning and personal learning programmes.

Schools Minister Jim Knight paid tribute to all of the award winners, saying: "We know fom a decade of Plato winners that these are people whose excellence is infectious and whose enthusiasm rubs off on colleagues, children and pupils, we look to them as leaders in their fields."