The Tasmanian ACEL 2016 Branch Awards

The Tasmanian ACEL 2016 Branch Awards presentation and social gathering was held on June 30th this year at the University Club function rooms on the sandy Bay campus.

Over 50 people including Award recipients, family, friends and supporters of ACEL TAS, joined together to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements and the potential of Educational Leaders in our State who had been nominated by peers and colleagues for these prestigious Awards.

The Eminent Educator for 2016 is Emeritus Professor John Williamson recently retired from the position of Dean of the Education Faculty at UTAS, but very much still active in advocating for Education and Educational Leaders and mentoring Leaders of the future.

Other Awards presented on the evening included Emerging Leader Awards to Callum Hollingsworth  from Rosny College, Amelia Clifford from Montrose Bay High School and Belinda Hopwood from the University of Tasmania and Excellence In Leadership Awards to Simone Cunliffe from Rosny College, Selina Kinne from Dominic College, Casey Mainsbridge from UTAS, Rosa Connell from Catholic Education Tasmania, and Marco Guerzoni from Guilford Young College.

The Council also bestowed Fellowships of the Tasmanian Branch to two very well regarded Educational Leaders who have been supporters of ACEL over many years.  Unfortunately Mr Wayne Brown from the Hutchins School was not able to be present  to receive the Fellowship as he was presenting at an International Boys in Education Conference in Vancouver but the other Fellowship was greeted most warmly by the gathering when it was presented to Mr John Mula who is currently the Director of Catholic Education in Tasmania and a long time supporter of ACEL both in Tasmania and formerly in both NSW and Queensland.

An additional feature of the Awards this year was also very much applauded by the assembled educators was the acknowledgement of two groups who have worked collaboratively to improve significantly the learning outcomes for students in their care.  The two groups were the Teggana Collective – a collaboration of the Principals of the High schools and the Senior Secondary College in the South East district.  Ms Deb Day the Principal of Rosny Senior Secondary College gave a special address in which she spoke about the work of this collective and the benefits both for the participants and for the students of this initiative.  The second group recognised and awarded was the Action Research group from Montrose Bay High School who undertook to critique their own practice and engaged in a cyclical process of reflective conversations to drive improved student outcomes through changing teacher pedagogy.

It was a most enjoyable evening for all who gathered to celebrate education generally, Leaders in particular, and to toast the end of Term 2 on a wintery Tassie evening.

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