Writer and broadcaster Terry Waite has given his backing to the Kent Teacher Of The Year Awards. Here he writes exclusively for the Kent Messenger Group about his experience and why teachers deserve wider recognition for the work they do

I seem to have been surrounded by teachers all my life. Soon after I left full time education I met my wife, whose mother was a teacher. Two of my wife's sisters were teachers and years later my son took up teaching.

To cap it all one of my daughters who trained in the medical profession recently

went to India to conduct a specialised course for teachers. I can't seem to escape them!

Having been so closely associated with the profession throughout my life I do realise what pressures teachers have been subject to during the past years. There has been a tendency to undervalue their vital role in society and I applaud anything that can be done to reverse this.

We place our children in their trust from the very earliest days and their influence can be, and often is, vital to their healthy development.

All of us will remember our schooldays and if your experience is anything like mine your feelings will be mixed. I remember a headmaster who terrified me and nearly put me off maths for life by setting impossible mathematical problems as a punishment.

He kept the answers in a little black book and I never once got one right. That failure let to his next punishment-the cane, thankfully long banished.

My next headmaster was quite the opposite. Rather than punish he encouraged. That doesn't mean to say that he let discipline slip. The opposite was the case, but by his cheerful example he set the tone for the school so that teachers and pupils together were proud of the institution and did their best to work to their capacity.

He taught me, although I didn't realise it at the time, that a good leader can have a profound influence by encouraging others rather than by browbeating them.

He was enthusiastic and his enthusiasm was infectious. Years later when I found myself in difficult circumstances I remembered his example. He certainly had a positive influence on my life.

Alas, the role of teachers in society still continues to undervalued by certain people. I hope this award scheme will bring the attention of many to the importance of the work of teachers. I hope it will encourage them in their vital work and enable Kent to develop one of the finest educational systems in the country.

It's a high goal to aim for but quite achievable given enthusiasm on the part of teachers and proper support from the wider community.