THREE Bradford teachers picked up 'Thank You Teacher Awards' at a ceremony last night.

Lindsey Russell, from CBBC’s Blue Peter, and children’s TV personality Basil Brush presented the awards at The West Yorkshire Playhouse.

Lisa Bland, from Lidget Green Primary School, was described by her nominee as “an inspirational teacher who goes one step further than other teachers.”

Zaheer Jaffary teaches girls cricket at Carlton Bolling College. He was described as telling the young players “not to give up and to believe in [themselves] more.

Finally, Lea Cook, an art teacher at Bradford College, was singled out by her students because of the “genuine sense of enjoyment and fun which Mrs Cook brings to her classes [to] make them such a success.”

The BBC Radio Leeds Awards were created following the outpouring of emotion after the death of schoolteacher Ann Maguire in a Leeds classroom last year and teachers were nominated by the station's listeners.

The winners were chosen by a specially selected judging panel including poet and broadcaster Ian McMillan, former head of Wakefield Girls High School Pat Langham, former Leeds mayoress and carnival organiser Susan Pitter and former teacher Harry Gration, who swapped the classroom for the TV studio and presents BBC Look North Yorkshire.