Celebrations were the order of the day as a Kilmarnock teacher scooped a prestigious award from the renowned Institute of Physics (IOP) – and chatted to tv’s star scientist, Brian Cox.

Colin Barbour, Principal Teacher at St Joseph’s Academy, won this year’s coveted Teacher of Physics award. He was presented with a £300 cheque, a paperweight and certificate by IOP President Sir Peter Knight at a glittering ceremony in the Intercontinental Hotel, Park Lane, London.

Colin said: “It was absolutely brilliant. I didn’t know what to expect at all.

“The IOP put me up in the £470 a night hotel. There were 650 people at the ceremony and we had a champagne reception followed by an excellent meal. The guest speaker was Professor Brian Cox, who also received the President’s Medal in recognition of his achievements in promoting science to the general public.

“I’ll remember the ceremony for a long time –and the engraved glass paperweight now has pride of place at home”.

Former Loudoun Academy pupil Colin explained that he had been nominated by Professor Danny Gorman, retired, of Strathclyde University, whose daughter he previously taught.

Former students were contacted to write testimonials about Colin’s inspiring teaching ability and methods.

Colin said: “I didn’t know a thing about any of this at the time. The news of my award came totally out of the blue. Fortunately, enough pupils said nice things about me!”

A teacher for 24 years, Colin has spent 22 of them at St Joseph’s Academy, where he has been Principal Teacher since 1995.

Spokesperson for Lifelong Learning Councillor Stephanie Primrose said: “Congratulations to Colin on receiving this national recognition for his outstanding teaching.

“He was honoured alongside distinguished research scientists and industrialists at the annual awards dinner. In this way, the IOP recognised that without dedicated teachers, there would be no physics research community or technological base in our society”.