Honorary Education Award 2020
In October 2020, HRH the Prince of Wales awarded Yvonne Conolly CBE the Naz Legacy Foundation Honorary Education Award at our Annual Reception. Yvonne was the first black female headteacher in the UK and was a trailblazer in the field of education and black representation in the UK.
Yvonne trained as a teacher in her native Jamaica and arrived in the UK in 1963. After working as a teacher in north London, including at George Eliot primary school in Swiss Cottage, she became headteacher of Ring Cross primary school in Holloway in 1969 at the age of 29. Yvonne was also an Ofsted inspector for seven years and from 1977 to 1986 was a government adviser on race relations. She also helped to set up a Caribbean Teaching Association to assist people of non-white heritage in the education sector. Prince Charles said “Her place as a pioneer of the Windrush generation must be cherished by us all. I cannot begin to imagine the character and determination she must have shown to lead the way for black educators 50 years ago.”
Yvonne trained as a teacher in her native Jamaica and arrived in the UK in 1963. After working as a teacher in north London, including at George Eliot primary school in Swiss Cottage, she became headteacher of Ring Cross primary school in Holloway in 1969 at the age of 29. Yvonne was also an Ofsted inspector for seven years and from 1977 to 1986 was a government adviser on race relations. She also helped to set up a Caribbean Teaching Association to assist people of non-white heritage in the education sector. Prince Charles said “Her place as a pioneer of the Windrush generation must be cherished by us all. I cannot begin to imagine the character and determination she must have shown to lead the way for black educators 50 years ago.”
