The Educator recently announced the finalists of the Australian Education Awards 2020, highlighting dozens of individuals and more than 100 schools that are driving excellence in teaching and learning in all sectors and jurisdictions across the nation.
The Awards, which celebrate the outstanding achievements of the country’s top performing schools, principals, department heads and teachers, are being presented in 23 categories, including Australian School of the Year, Australian Principal of the Year, Best Professional Learning Program and Best Student Wellbeing Program.
Ahead of this year’s Awards, Maryborough State High School, located in regional Queensland, has been nominated across six categories – Best Co-Curriculum Program; Best School Strategic Plan; Department Head of the Year; Regional School of the Year; School Principal of the Year – Government and Secondary School of the Year – Government.
Putting student wellbeing at the core
Principal Simon Done says the cornerstone of this success is having placed student wellbeing at the heart of the school’s ethos – a step cemented in a major review undertaken last year.
“With the wellbeing of students at the forefront of everything our school does, we have been well placed to adapt to ‘the new normal’,” Done told The Educator.
“If students are not able to feel safe and supported, no educational value will follow. As a result, when the current issues have surfaced, all actions were based on a core belief and focus on staff and student wellbeing”.
Done said having “a dynamic, agile and highly skilled team who are leading a group of passionate expert staff” has also been a great advantage the school has enjoyed.
“I have absolute faith and trust in my team and am proud of all of their achievements,” he said.
Done said the school has been looking at some of the learnings out of the movement into a new learning model and will use a number of these moving forward to continue to improve.
“It is a testament to the determination, empathy and flexibility of the staff at Maryborough State High School, as well as at many other schools, that the move to online learning, and back again, was handled relatively seamlessly”.
‘A high performing regional school needs to know its community’
While COVID-19 has hit all schools hard, students, staff and families located in regional, rural and remote areas had been struggling with resourcing and mental health issues disproportionate to those experienced by their metropolitan counterparts.
This means that in these parts of the country, the connections that schools build with their communities – both parent and school – is especially important.
For Maryborough State High School – which has been named as a finalist for the Regional School of the Year Award – Done said the school has an important role as the central hub of the area it serves – educationally, but also socially and emotionally.
“That resilience comes from having trust in your community and subsequently the community having trust in you to provide quality outcomes for every student,” Done said.
“The school is central to the community and has been for nearly 140 years, as a Grammar School, then a separate gender high school, then a co-ed Independent Public School”.
Value, Develop, Empower
Done, who has been nominated as a finalist for the School Principal of the Year – Government Award, said the leadership approach he is taking is based on First, Start With ‘Why’ – the work of Simon Sinek, a British-American author and motivational speaker, and organisational consultant.
“If students and staff have an understanding of why things are occurring and place this at the centre of their actions, their subsequent actions are focussed on what matters to the organisation,” Done explained.
“The ‘why’ at Maryborough State High School is that ‘we make a difference to students’ future lives.’ To do this, we Value, Develop and Empower them”.
As a school leader, Done also looks to this for focus with empowering staff to achieve in a distributed leadership model as a key to the school’s success.
“All levels of the school structure, from aides to teachers, through the leadership team, all have the same focus for the school and are aware of their role in providing that,” he said.
“It is because of this focus that we have been able to never lose sight of our key deliverable, which is to make a difference – this can mean different successes for different students”.
The Australian Education Awards will be held Thursday 29th October 2020 at Doltone House, Sydney. For more information, click here.