2008 Winners
The winners of the 2008 Victorian Education Excellence Awards were announced on Friday 16 May 2008 at Crown Palladium.
Lindsay Thompson Fellowship
Heather Ridge, Coach (Teacher), Loddon-Mallee Regional Office
Coaching - Enhancing Teacher Performance
Heather intends to research and establish effective coaching practices which can be confidently adopted in schools, supported and sustained regionally, and provide common ground coaching practice to enhance the Performance and Development Culture in schools.
Curriculum Innovation Award
Andrew Douch, Teacher (Biology), Wanganui Park Secondary College
Embracing Emerging Technologies
Embracing emerging technologies that students find engaging, has extended the classroom beyond the physical walls, making it accessible to students anywhere, anytime. It has opened the classroom to students from other biology classes at Wanganui Park Secondary College and in other schools in Victoria and around the world. It is a fundamental transformation of the way the class operates using emerging technologies to redefine “classroom” in terms of when a class takes place and who a class is! All biology students at Wanganui SC are involved, as well as over 2,000 students and teachers from other schools across Victoria and the World.
Outstanding Business Manager Award
Sharon Ciantar, Business Manager, Braybrook College
Explore the new Secondary Teacher Assistant role with a view to ensuring local and system wide best practice in innovation education.
As a Business Manager, Sharon would like to extend herself to be a mentor and lead the school support team. The award will enable her to source expertise and tap into best available research by visiting other schools in the United Kingdom where this initiative is already in place. This will enable enhanced support to the school community and contribute system wide.
Outstanding School Leadership Award
Colin Schot, Principal, Concord School
Mainstreaming Special Education through ICT
Current ICT practice in specialist schools is of limited value to a student’s learning beyond their formal schooling experience. Students with additional learning needs require radical changes to be made to the way ICT is delivered and taught if they are to become social and collaborative learners in a global society. Colin aims to research the capacity of ICT to improve the learning and social connectedness of students with additional learning needs through web based tools.
Outstanding School Services / Support Team Award
Ms Sandra Ellis, School Services Officer and Ms Kay Mattingly, School Services Officer (Integration Aide), Haslem Street (Kyabram) Primary School
Successful introduction of a Sensory Program
Introduced a “Sensory Program” after attending professional development sessions on Autism Sensory Perceptions. As a result the team was enthusiastic about establishing a sensory program to address the needs of children at the school. Since the introduction of the program children are more aware of sensory stimuli and able to respond in an appropriate manner leading to increased inclusion and participation in the classroom.
Early Childhood Teacher Award
Maree Sheehan, Audrey Brooks Memorial Pre School, West Heidelberg
Demonstrate and model exemplary practice in their teaching and learning skills.
Maree would like to extend her knowledge base in relation to practices which support children and families from low socio economic and culturally linguistic backgrounds. The award will enable her to tour early childhood services in New Zealand and the United Kingdom and will allow her to see firsthand, innovative strategies which will influence her practice and other early childhood teachers in her network.
Outstanding Primary Teacher Award
James Penson, Teacher, Greenhills Primary School
Investigate the way in which schools can develop and nurture a rich community learning / network partnership through working with best practice leaders and organisations (reference to Federalist Paper 2-The Future of Schooling in Australia – Sept 2007).
With changes taking place across many education systems worldwide, the focus on schools becoming a community of learners, with the core purpose or mission of engaging in purposeful life-long learning and meeting learner needs through tailored learning opportunities is being achieved through learning based on real-life experiences with students developing more ownership and through negotiated curriculum.
Outstanding Secondary Teacher Award
Gary Schultz, Teacher, Dimboola Memorial Secondary College
Interactive White Boards: A focus on the investigation of the latest pedagogical approaches in the use of Interactive Whiteboards in Australia.
To undertake an analysis of whole-school approach looking at the enhancement of language learning outcomes for students and improvement of peer collaboration and teaching practice. Following the investigation, Gary would like to develop a professional development program that would be able to be used to enhance colleagues’ capabilities through the use of a variety of ICT mediums.
School Leadership Team Award
Ms Jessica Sargeant, Teacher (Team Leader); Mr Peter Dredge, Principal; Mr Gary Palmer, Assistant Principal; Mr Rod Homburg, Teacher; Ms Sue Jackson, Teacher; Mr Chris Maple, Teacher; Ms Lesley Thorpe, Business Manager.Ballarat High School
Impacted on the quality of teaching and learning through the design of a Learning Framework
During 2007 the leadership team in consultation with the school community developed a learning framework that has formed the basis of Ballarat High School becoming a learning community. The framework comprised 6 core components based on the Principles of Learning and Teaching and are reflective of how all members of the school community understand learning.