A former teacher who has helped mentor young people with learning difficulties for many years has been nominated in the National Diversity Awards.

Dan Gaze, who served various roles at Falconer School in Bushey for 12 and a half years, has spent the majority of his life transforming the lives of young people with learning difficulties.

Mr Gaze explained that he went through a “difficult period” in his life during 2002 which involved him being in prison for several months.

As he overcame it, he trained as a teacher in hope to help children with social, economic and mental health (SEMH) difficulties.

He said: “I just wanted to give back and help them have the life I didn’t have and guide them on different pathways.”

Teaching PE became a “mentoring tool” to help children, whether their ability is skilled or not.

After Falconer School, he moved in August 2019 to The Chiltern School in Houghton Regis to teach sports to children with special needs.

Since then he has also helped raise thousands of pounds for charities that helps keep youngsters away from drug addiction and knife crime through community football events.

His nomination in the National Diversity Awards is not the first time he was recognised – as he was nominated as a ‘Hotspur Hero’ last year, but also won numerous other awards for his work with disabled athletes and children with other difficulties.

Nominated as a ‘positive role model’ in the latest awards in association with ITV News, Mr Gaze hopes to continue helping young people become the best version of themselves.

The inspirational teacher said: “I think it’s important that every child should get every opportunity, whether they have special needs or not.

“When I took over at Falconers as Head of PE, I thought it was important that our students still had access to mainstream sport and got the opportunity to compete at every level, whether they have low ability or high ability.

“I used sport more as a mentoring tool – you create leaders, you get people to lead warm-ups, which gives them skills for the future to go into work, you use communication, both verbal and non-verbal, to help them progress and you get them to use sport to express themselves.

“I feel that sport is such an outlet, especially in the special needs sector, because you can use it to teach young people about self-esteem and teamwork. The motto at Falconers at the time was ‘Dream, believe, achieve’ and I thought that was a massive thing for young people to follow.”

Applicants for the National Diversity Awards are judged on votes submitted through the website, to share support to Mr Gaze visit: https://nationaldiversityawards.co.uk/nominate/35234/