A teacher who has worked at a school for children with educational and behavioural needs for the past 18 years has been nominated for a Teacher of the Year Award.

Billie Marchant, who works at Melrose School in Mitcham, has been nominated due to her perseverance and dedication to the students in need.

On hearing about her nomination, she said: “I’m overjoyed and surprised.

“I thoroughly enjoy the job I do. The students are very special; they may have behavioural problems, but as a teacher you oversee them and just try to help as best you can.”

She described the daily struggles of her job as being an array of challenges such as helping students with speech problems, emotional and behavioural problems and verbal problems.

She said: “What motivates me is when the young people we work with leave the school and realise the impact the teachers have made on them.

“We do make an impact, even if they haven’t realised yet while they’re still at the school. If I sit down, I get bored.

“I always have to be doing something to help.”

In addition to helping students in need, Ms Marchant also helps her children at the Church Road school with DIY jobs and cleaning.

She said: “I want to make life easier for them, not as hard as I had it.”

Her daughter, Hayley Boylan, who nominated her, said: “She is always putting everyone else first. She never gives up on the children she supports as a teaching assistant.”

“She has time for everyone and never says ‘no’ or ‘I can’t’.

“She is an inspiration to all, and everyone that knows her calls her super mum. She is our hero.”

Nominate someone by voting online at www.wimbledonguardian.co.uk/mca or fill out a form in the Wimbledon Guardian newspaper