Music teacher Cathy Roberts, from St Aidan's CE School in Harrogate, has been named secondary teacher of the year at the Teaching Awards 2000 ceremony.
Mrs Roberts received a gold "Plato" trophy as well as £20,000 for her school.
She was described as someone with endless drive and vision who had taken music teaching into a whole new dimension.
She received her Plato from singer Cleo Laine, who visited the school, before the actual ceremony, which was held at the Millennium Dome last night.
Cathy was also congratulated by TV's Davina McCall at the ceremony.
Cathy said: "It was an honour to receive the award from Cleo and it is an honour to work with children like I do.
"It is a privilege to teach them and it is a privilege to be paid to do something that I love."
She said the money would go towards developing music at St Aidan's. The school plans to buy more music software and to provide recording equipment.
The awards were introduced last year when York teacher Norma Machell won primary teacher of the year.
The ceremony will be televised on BBC1 on Sunday.
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