A HEDGE END head teacher has been declared the best in the country.

Jeffrey Threlfall of Wildern School, has scooped the UK Royal Air Force Teaching Award for Headteacher of the Year in a Secondary School.

He was presented with a golden Plato by radio broadcaster and television personality Mariella Frostup in a ceremony held at London's Theatre Royal last night.

The ceremony was hosted by BBC's Jeremy Vine and broadcast on BBC2 in front of a star studded audience with familiar faces including actresses Imelda Staunton and Michelle Collins, singer Jamelia and chart toppers The Sugarbabes.

Other guests included Alan Johnson, the secretary of state for education and skills. Lord Puttnam CBE, who established the Teaching Awards in 1998 said: "The future and that of every child on the planet, rests on our ability to invest in building an educated global society.

"Teachers, teaching assistants and school governors make an exceptional contribution to that objective every day of their working lives.

"As a nation, we should be fantastically proud of them. I know I am."

Mr Threlfall, who has seen exam results rise and pupil numbers grow during his headship, now has 1,760 pupils at the specialist arts school.

Inspectors from the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) described the school in Wildern Lane as outstanding during their last inspection.

After Mr Threlfall was nominated for the award earlier this year a senior member of school staff wrote a letter of endorsement and a panel of 35 judges finally decided to give him the national award.

Mike Hughes, head of year at Romsey's Mountbatten School, was also shortlisted in the teaching awards ceremony for the Ted Wragg Award for lifetime achievement.