AN ART teacher from a St Albans secondary school has been crowned one of the best new talents in the country.

Lee Bazen, 27, who has been teaching art at Sandringham Secondary School for nearly two years, won the Outstanding New Teacher of the Year award for the East of England region at the Teaching Awards ceremony in Bishop’s Stortford.

Since joining the school Lee, who was presented with his Plato award by BBC TV presenter Susie Fowler-Watt, has been appointed as assistant director of learning for visual arts and has been pivotal in the creative development of Sandringham’s visual arts faculty.

Sandringham head teacher Alan Gray said that Lee, who was one of over 9,200 nominations for this year’s Teaching Awards, had an immediate impact on art as soon as he joined the school in September 2008 and that he has an infectious passion for his subject.

He added: “I am delighted Lee is teaching at Sandringham. He brings significant qualities to our workforce and is a wonderful role model for young people. Not only is he an exceptional teacher but he is also a very talented artist with a huge range of skills that are used to enhance the delivery of his subject.

“This award is thoroughly deserved and demonstrates the high quality work Lee does at the school. We are very fortunate to have him working here and I am certain he will have a very promising teaching career ahead of him.”

Maple Primary School head teacher Timothy Bowen, who was the only headteacher in Hertfordshire to be nominated for his category, was commended at the awards, narrowly missing out on the NCSL Award for Headteacher of the Year in a Primary School in the East of England.