A RARE honour has been conferred upon an Ilkley primary school teacher.

Catherine Cheater, a teacher at Moorfield School, has been made a Fellow of the Association for Language Learning (ALL). The award was presented at the ALL annual conference, Language World, on Friday.

The fellowship recognises ALL individual members who have made a long-standing contribution to language learning in the UK, beyond the call of their professional role and who have supported the work of the Association significantly over time; their contribution might be on the national or local scale.

Catherine has worked as a local authority adviser, and was also Senior Language Teaching Advisor (Primary) at CILT, The National Centre for Languages. She was one of the authors of the Key Stage 2 Framework for Languages (DfE, 2002), and has published her own schemes of work for French which are currently used by more than 8000 primary schools across the UK. She is also the author of the Primary French Project materials, held on the website of the Institut français de Londres at www.culturetheque.com. In 2005, Catherine was awarded the honour of Chevalier dans l’ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French Embassy in London.

Catherine supports local teachers by helping to manage networking and transition meetings for Wharfe Valley Primary Schools. She is a keen musician, Director of the Ilkley Singers, and a member of Saint Margaret’s Parish Church Choir.