When teacher Liz Mills shows her children a doughnut she knows she's got their full attention.

The trick might be to appeal to their fondness for sweet things, but it is actually part of her religious education in the classroom.

"It has to be a doughnut with a ring in the middle," said Liz. "The bit they eat is what they are fed through learning. The missing part is their own spiritual development."

Liz's original approach to the subject has caught the eye of education experts. And now she's been invited to a VIP bash in London, including the grand unveiling of the Millennium Dome. She lives with her husband Gary at Church Road, North Leigh, and teaches at Bishop Loveday primary school in Bodicote, Banbury.

She was given a grant through the Millennium Commission to look into ways of teaching religious education.

Liz said: "Pupils' spiritual development can and must be encouraged and RE has a distinct and vital contribution." Most of the work for her project was in the East Anglian area where she worked in 1997. She has since been asked to provide information to the Times Educational Supplement and has had one of her RE lessons filmed for use in training Ofsted inspectors.

Her achievements are being celebrated, along with 50 Millennium Award Fellows, as special guests at a Millennium Eve reception at the House of Lords, before going on to the Millennium Dome.

She added: "The award has been a fantastic gift."

Story date: Friday 29 October

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