28 June 2012: We received 119 applications; we interviewed 25 teachers; now we have chosen 11 winners of Let Teachers SHINE 2012.

In total, grants worth £124,000 have been awarded to innovative maths and literacy pilot projects based at schools across England. These are expected to benefit more than 1,700 disadvantaged students over the next 12 months.

The successful teachers work at both primary and secondary schools, mainly in the state sector (although the independent sector is also represented). These schools are located across the country – from Bristol to Norwich, and from Southampton to Stockport. Some initiatives use time-honoured teaching techniques; others leverage the most modern technology, including augmented reality and geocaching. But all of them offer a fresh approach to reinforcing the foundations of a successful education – literacy and numeracy, enthusiasm and effort.

The winners

The winning teachers and their pilot projects are:

• Zoe Ali, Grange Technology College in Bradford, for a project to increase parental involvement in reading activities for children with English as an Additional Language
• Patrick Carroll, Shaw Wood Primary School in Doncaster, whose idea uses an augmented reality mobile phone app to show children reading and performing their written work
• Rhian Davies, Marple Hall School in Stockport, whose initiative will see gifted and talented GCSE students work with struggling 11-14 year olds to improve their maths skills
• Colin Hegarty and Brian Arnold, Queensmead School in Ruislip, who will develop their free YouTube maths tutoring for GCSE and A level students (check out their work to date at mathswebsite.com)
• Caroline Hext, Stoneydown Park Primary School in Walthamstow, who is launching daily 20 minute maths tuition in small groups for every 5-7 year old at her school; this will supplement normal maths classes
• Nicola Hill, Norwich School in Norfolk, whose scheme provides personalised maths lessons on Saturdays to 30 students from local schools to help them bridge the gap between primary and secondary school mathematics
• Sam Mohammad, Sydney Russell School in Dagenham, who is setting up a series of Saturday sessions, in which secondary students will work in teams to complete learning projects in core GCSE subjects
• Claire Stewart, City Academy in Bristol, whose initiative helps 11-13 year olds with low reading ages by asking them to read to selected and trained residents of a local retirement home
• Kristian Still, Hamble Community Sports College in Southampton, who is using Interactive Fiction (common in computer games) to improve the literacy skills of disaffected teenagers
• Michelle Uddin, Falinge Park High School in Rochdale, whose project uses geocaching (large scale treasure hunts using GPS) to improve literacy and numeracy skills among 11-14 year olds
• Julie Woodward, The Regis School in Bognor Regis, who is launching a network of literacy support and development based on the popular book, ‘Blitzed’, by Robert Swindells

All 11 pilots will begin next term and we will post more information about each of the winning initiatives over the summer. At the end of the school year, we will review the progress each pilot has made; further funding may then be made available for the most successful schemes.

Congratulations to all our 2012 winners and thank you to everybody who sent in an application. We are also very grateful to the many hundreds of people who watched our video and/or promoted Let Teachers SHINE on Twitter or through more time-honoured methods. Final thanks must go to our distinguished panel of judges: SHINE Trustees Caroline Whalley and Bridget Walsh, and Michael Shaw, deputy editor of TES.