Five local high school teachers have secured Logan the top spot at a Queensland teachers’ awards night for their commitment to making the lives of students better.
The southern hemisphere’s biggest secondary school, Marsden State High School, had three of its staff win big at the annual Queensland College of Teachers’ TEACHX Awards.
Two other teachers from Loganholme State High School also won awards.
These five teachers helped make Logan the equal first-best performing region in the state.
Marsden SHS’ associate principal Sean Curtis was a winner of the Excellent Leadership in Teaching and Learning award.
In his role, Mr Curtis oversees almost 4000 students and around 400 staff, which includes seven deputy principals, 25 heads of departments and more than 250 teachers.
Mr Curtis has helped shape Marsden SHS’s approach to learning, including through the school’s $18 million ‘Academic Centre of Excellence featuring modern learning spaces, a new curriculum and a Tech Academy focused on robotics, virtual reality, esports and drone racing.
He has helped introduced learning aids like the Makos Mentor program to tailor learning to each students’ needs, and helped create high staff satisfaction and retention rates, with over 95 per cent of staff agreeing on the quality of professional development opportunities.
“Knowing that my efforts have made a positive impact on others is truly rewarding, and I’m grateful for the support of my colleagues and students who have been part of this journey,” Mr Curtis said.
“I believe leadership in schools is all about the people.
“Marsden continues to go from strength to strength and I’m grateful to work alongside incredible people, teachers, students and the wider community.”
Marsden SHS’s Jenna Cullen won an award for Innovation in Teaching, and Michael Smith for Outstanding Contribution to Teaching.
Ms Cullen has integrated the latest research from psychology, education, and neuroscience to help make education better.
She devised Marden’s Science of Learning Pedagogy Toolkit – a comprehensive resource that supports over 250 colleagues to create a “standard of high-quality teaching”.
Ms Cullen said it was “an enormous honour to be recognised”.
“I have benefited so much from the support of my colleagues and mentors, so it feels gratifying to be representing the Logan community on a statewide level,” she said.
“I believe Logan may have more TeachX winners than any other Queensland region this year, which is a great testament to the quality of education we are providing in the community.
She said teachers were the “ultimate innovators”, with every new class bring “interesting challenges and problems to solve”.
“As a school community, we are creating evidence-based resources to empower our students with the tools to become life-long learners,” Ms Cullen said.
“We believe that learning shouldn’t be a secret; instead, we want to support teachers, students and community members to discover an action plan for learning, backed by the latest research from psychology, education and neuroscience.”
Loganlea SHS’s Anna Ludwig also won an innovation in teaching award for her work, on multiple innovative projects integrating digital tools across the curriculum and driving substantial improvements in student outcomes.
Loganlea’s Kiri Griffith won for Excellent Leadership in Teaching and Learning, specifically for her “willingness to challenge herself, students, and staff members to achieve results”.
