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Maths teacher Michelle Day from Emerson Park School in�� Hornchurch has won the Guardian’s award for Teacher of the Year in a Secondary School in London.

Last year David Torn from St Edwards CE Comprehensive in Romford won an prestigious award for his innovative style of teaching.

This year’s winner Michelle was nominated by a parent, who said: “This teacher has inspired my son, who was once a troubled young man to one we are very proud of."

"She has continually gone above and beyond the call of duty for my son and I do believe if it was not for her, he would have been permanently excluded rather than hoping to train as a teacher himself.”

Indeed school inspectors called her lessons “outstanding” and pupils said, “She puts her students before herself.”

Known to students as Mrs Crowley,�� one remembers how she identified him as talented in mathematics, and gave up her lunches and after-school time to coach him to an A* at GCSE – a year early.

And it’s not just parents and pupils she’s popular with. She was praised by colleagues too, who say�� she “knows what is important” and called her teaching “down to earth and very clear.”

In the seven years she has been at Emerson Park maths results have risen from 35% of pupils getting a good GCSE to 80%- and colleagues say it's down to Michelle's input and commitment.

The Teaching Awards judges said she is "a young woman on a mission to live the reality that every child matters.��"