26 May 2022

For the Public Education Awards this year, you can nominate yourself or enter a colleague. Find out some tips to help your application stand out from the crowd.

Show Notes

• Apply for the Public Education Awards

Transcript

Teach is produced on the traditional land of the Kaurna people. The South Australian Department for Education would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land and pay our respects to all elders, past, present and emerging.

Dale Atkinson: Hello, and welcome back to Teach, a podcast about teaching and learning in South Australia. I'm Dale Atkinson from South Australia's Department for Education. Today's episode is all about our people, our teachers, our leaders, and the people working in support roles, and also in central office. We think everyone from time to time deserves to be recognised for the stuff they do and deserve a bit of a cheer too.

That's why we're reminding you that nominations for the 2022 Public Education Awards will be open soon. With me today is Abbey Woolley, who is part of the team that oversees the awards each year. And I've got to tell you, I was there last year, it was an amazing night. Welcome Abbey.

Abbey Woolley: Thank you. Thanks for having me, Dale.

Dale Atkinson: Well, it's nice to have you. We all know it's hard to find some time to reflect on our achievements, particularly under the current COVID settings, and everyone's working incredibly hard. But I imagine the awards create a valuable opportunity for people just to take some time out and recognise the fabulous work they do.

Abbey Woolley: Indeed, they do, and a lot of the cases teachers are inherently humble. And so, it's nice to showcase and recognise the excellence that is out there in the department, and the awards give us that platform.

Dale Atkinson: So, they've been around since 2011. There's a little bit of a change that's coming in because normally individuals have self-nominated for the awards. So that's been the previous kind of set up. This year, what we're saying is that applications can also be submitted by a colleague on behalf of an individual. So why has that change been made?

Abbey Woolley: I guess it's been made because we really are looking for the best of our best, and like I mentioned, teachers can be humble and not necessarily want to put themselves forward.

We recognise that there are many outstanding staff that are reluctant to recognition, or simply not recognise the impact that they have with the students or their community. So this year, like you said, peers, leaders, and colleagues, we're asking them to consider if they work with an outstanding individual or team, perhaps that they should consider applying for them on their behalf and they can submit that application in collaboration with the person. But they indeed do need to seek consent obviously before submitting, or they can just tap them on the shoulder and say, hey, I think you're brilliant. Why don't you apply for an award this year?

Dale Atkinson: One of the things that really stood out at last year's awards is the sheer breadth of categories and the incredible range of things that people do that are amazing, but that they can also be nominated for. So, what are the types of things we're looking for and why should someone enter or be entered for the awards?

Abbey Woolley: We all know I guess that teachers are extremely passionate about what they do -   teaching and learning, and we really want to share their stories and showcase outstanding practice impact.

And that really does contribute to the department's world-class vision. Winning a public education award is a recognition of an individual team or the whole of the school community really. And it gives schools, preschools, and children's centres the opportunity to share their expertise and be recognised for that outstanding impact.

Dale Atkinson: And so what's the process of applying? What should people do and how do they get that underway?

Abbey Woolley: We've put together an application guide, which will be available at schools in a hard copy, but we do also have an online copy of that. So, visit our website for that. But, to apply, the first step is looking at the application guide, choosing a category, perhaps discussing that with your leader or your peers. And I guess when you're choosing that category, making sure that it is a category that you can most comprehensively answer all the criteria for it. The next step is seeking endorsement, because your line manager or principal will have to endorse your application before it goes any further in the process and then of course writing your application, this can be done on our online platform, or we have also provided some Word templates that are available on our website. Just in case you do want to collaborate or work on your answers offline before submitting online. We do say use plain English, read your application thoroughly before submitting it. We've just put those tools in place to make that a little bit easier for people.

Dale Atkinson: What are some things that people can think about to make their application kind of stand out for the judging panel?

Abbey Woolley: I can't stress enough, how important evidence is. Our judges are looking for evidence. Evidence is key, evidence, evidence, evidence. So, you know, real examples and details of lessons and the impact that they've had on learners, practical evidence of high quality, inspirational teaching, or approaches that enthuse, engage and motivate others, examples of how you have actively involved families in their child's learning, using quotes from students or colleagues to back up an argument or piece of evidence that you're providing. And I guess finally think about any additional opportunities that you or who you're applying for have created for children and young people for an example, extracurricular activities, or how you may have actively lived the public sector values, you know, and for more information on what makes a good application, we do have some more tips and tricks online if people want to explore that further.

Dale Atkinson: Yeah, perfect. I mean, I think one of the things that kind of stood out at the awards last year from the videos of the awards' recipients, was just how the flow on effect of the work they did impacted their colleagues or the children they're working with, to try and drive those improved outcomes. And I think that's really one of the key things that we're looking for in the awards.

Abbey Woolley: Absolutely. And I think that, you know, showcasing this excellence and showcasing the fact that it is transferable, it's inspirational, but in a lot of the ways, these stories can be transferred into other sites and, and other central applications.

So that's what we're really after that, ripple effect of impact.

Dale Atkinson: Yeah, and one of the great things about the awards is that winning an award contributes towards some professional development that people can get. All the winners receive $10,000 in a prize towards professional development. All the finalists receive $2,000 towards their professional development. What sort of things can the prize money be spent on?

Abbey Woolley: Yes. So, I guess there are many ways over the years that I've seen the prize money be spent. It can be used to either support you or your team's professional development. Some of our past winners have used the money for training or up-skilling or coaching. Some other examples of further tertiary study, attending conferences or events specific to your field of interest. And we've had previous winners and finalists learn from other jurisdictions as well, but you may not be aware that you can also spend the prize money on learning resources for the school or community, which is a great way to look at how that can be spent, and for it to benefit children and young people. So, some examples of that are e-learning tools, software, or hardware to support that, books, films, flashcards, anything that you can think about that you'd find in a classroom.

Dale Atkinson: Yeah. I mean, one of the great things from awards winners is what I've seen previously, as it creates this kind of virtuous cycle of continuous improvement. So, they're away, they're using some of this money to work on some of their skills or to create these collaborative practice teams and really bring some of the knowledge back, extend that out to the broader school and partnership community. It's really impressive. It's great stuff.

Abbey Woolley: And I think Dale, like, that's what we want to get across. Winning an award impacts the whole community for the individual or team. That's really something that we would really love applicants to know.

Dale Atkinson: It's an amazing thing. Who are some of the previous winners that stand out for you, and what they've gone on to do?

Abbey Woolley: There are so many over the years, I've been with the program for, this is my fifth year now. And there's just been some incredible people that I've seen win, and be finalists. A few that do stand out to me, Antoinette Jones was the 2018 winner of the leadership award. She was the principal at the time of Mitcham Girls School, and she was very, very humble. And when we were filming at the school, she was very much about showing us what everyone else was doing, not necessarily wanting to put the spotlight on herself. And in true Antoinette style, she spent her $10,000 on providing a professional learning opportunity for her whole staff and invited community along and some surrounding schools to be a part of that. So, they all did a course on respectful relationships.

So, I think that that impact was felt quite heavily at that school, with her winning. Another lady that won, was Peta Thompson. She was Peta Tooley at the time of winning, and she was the recipient of the 2018 Early Years Teacher of the Year Award. Peta spent her money on a tour of Reggio Emilia, and she wanted to deepen her learning of that approach. And she came back, and she's since authored a book called Settle Petal which is a book about dealing with anxiety and children. And with that, she put together lesson plans to really embed that learning and key takeaways from the book, into the classroom. Yeah. They're just two pieces that make me smile, but there are plenty more.

Dale Atkinson: Yeah, it's a real launch pad to think, almost creatively, about how you want to progress your professional development and your career. And you want to help out the rest of the people at your site.

Abbey Woolley: Indeed. And we are always here. The team are always here to snowball ideas or workshop ideas about, any professional development that finalists or winners may want to just talk about, and we can provide some advice where possible.

Dale Atkinson: Okay. So, it's exciting. What are the key dates? What do people need to know?

Abbey Woolley: So, applications are open from the 1st of June for the whole month. So, the 1st to the 30th of June applications will be open. On the 26th of August, finalists will be announced. After that time, we will go into a period where we will actually go out to sites and central offices, and film finalists, because at the award ceremony, we premiere a 1 minute video clip of them all. So that will be happening. And after that point, winners and finalists are invited, as we've mentioned, to attend the award ceremony, which will be held on the evening of the 4th of November at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Dale Atkinson: And it's a fantastic night. It is one of those great opportunities, great, rare opportunities that educators have from across the state to get together and really celebrate the thing that we do, which is an amazing thing. Abbey, thank you very much for taking the time to chat with us. We're really hoping that this kicks off some conversations in those staff rooms and in corporate office and everywhere else about, you know, maybe somebody who's really worthy of being recognised or maybe get people thinking about, well, yeah, actually the work that I do is worth being, given some, recognition. So, thank you Abbey. Thank you for taking the time to chat with us today.

Abbey Woolley: Not a problem, Dale. Thanks for being here.

Dale Atkinson: And thank you everyone for listening. If this podcast has got you thinking about applying for an award or nominating a colleague, make sure you visit our website at education.sa.gov.au/awards or you can check out the show notes from today's episode, which can be found at education.sa.gov.au/teach. Catch you next time on Teach.