SWAN Hill Primary School principal Janet Barnard has received Victorian public
education’s highest honour for excellence in Indigenous teaching.
At Crown
Palladium on Friday night, in front of about 700 of her peers, Ms Barnard said
it was “quite a shock” to receive the Victoria Teachers Mutual Bank Teacher of
the Year — Indigenous Education award.
“This is more about the school and
community, than me. I just drive it,” she said.
Beginning as principal in
2010, Ms Barnard said an increasingly closer relationship with Koori parents,
associations and wider community had produced a range of initiatives that the
award recognised.
Last year the primary school was one of four in Victoria
included in the ‘Next Steps’ initiative, allowing a $200,000 boost towards
‘closing the gap’ in Indigenous literacy, numeracy and attendance, as well as
parent and community connectedness.
“Lots of things are happening besides the
academic, the community comes in to us and we go out to the community more,” Ms
Barnard said.
“Quite a few Koori parents talk about how uncomfortable they
were coming in to school, that’s changed through building that relationship,”
she said.
Local Aboriginal Education Consultative Group chair Stephanie
Charles said working with Ms Barnard had been “very rewarding” as a Wamba Wamba
representative.
For more of this story, see Wednesday’s Guardian (May 22).
