Two teachers in England have made the shortlist for the world’s “best teacher” award which includes a prize money of $1m (£725,000).

The global teacher prize was created by The Vareky Foundation to recognize one exceptional teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession, as well as to highlight the stories of the “hero” teachers who have transformed young people’s lives.

Liverpool-based David Swanston and Cat Davison, a teacher in Kent, are both on a shortlist of 50 from more than 8,000 nominations and applications for the annual Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize, which is now in its seventh year.

Cat Davison, a Critical Thinking teacher at Sevenoaks School in Kent, was put on the shortlist after working with teachers, students and community members in Ghana and the UK to create EduSpots, a network of 42 community-led solar-powered libraries. She was moved by the injustice of passionate teachers using extremely limited resources.

She said she felt "humbled and excited" to be selected "alongside such inspiring educators".

She thanked "all the incredible teachers, students and community educators" she had worked with who showed her "the power of education to affect social change".

David Swanston, a teacher at St Vincent’s School in Liverpool has been helping children with visual impairments for over a decade, after finding that these students often go on to face high levels of unemployment and have fewer friends than their sighted peers. His approach to teaching is personalised according to their level of vision.

Currently, Mr Swanston is working on the development of rugby specifically for the blind by modelling game play and creating ball prototypes using textures and electronics.

Global student of the year

For the first time this year the competition organisers have also launched a separate award to find the global student of the year with a £100,000 prize, and two UK students on the shortlist.

Elliott Lancaster (pictured left), a 24-year-old student at Keele University, and Enoch Opare Mintah (pictured right), a 30-year-old student at University of Lincoln, are in the running for the Chegg.org Global Student Prize 2021.

Elliott helped his family avoid homelessness as a teenager and now campaigns for improved mental health and a solution to homelessness, while Enoch, who was born in Ghana, raised money for university by teaching part time and selling recharge cards and mobile phones for three years. He also set up a project connecting schools in rural Ghana with UK schools.

Sunny Varkey, founder of the Varkey Foundation, said: “Congratulations to Cat, David, Elliott, and Enoch for reaching the final 50. Their stories clearly highlight the importance of education in tackling the great challenges ahead – from climate change to growing inequality to global pandemics. It is only by prioritising education that we can safeguard all our tomorrows. Education is the key to facing the future with confidence.”

The top 50 shortlists will be narrowed down to 10 finalists in both categories in October with the overall winners due to be announced at an awards ceremony in Paris in November.

The winner of the Global Teacher Prize 2020, announced in December, was Ranjitsinh Disale – a village primary school teacher from India who was praised for improving the education of girls.

Jamie Frost, a maths teacher from a school in south-west London, also won a one-off global Covid Hero Award of 45,000 dollars (£33,000) for his efforts during the pandemic to help keep pupils learning.

In 2018, Andria Zafirakou an arts and textiles teacher from North London became the first British winner of the global teaching prize. Her success came from her deep roots with the diverse local community where gang culture was a big problem in the area and poverty was high. She learnt basic phrases in many and has visited family homes.