By Tate Papworth
Two unsung heroes at Caroline Chisholm Catholic College have received some due recognition.
Teacher librarians Barbara Roach and Gabrielle Douglas have been shortlisted by EducationHQ in the Australia’s Unsung Hero Awards teacher librarian category.
Ms Roach said it was a thrill to be one of just five people nominated for the national award.
“It’s really exciting to be nominated – we actually didn’t even know we’d been nominated until a couple of our colleagues let us know,” she said. “We were a little embarrassed because the success we’ve had here has been very much a team effort with the English staff.”
The nomination comes on the back of the Braybrook school’s reading program.
“We ask our year 7 students to read a book and each week we sit down with them and have a mini-conference where we ask them what they enjoyed, what they didn’t like and what they struggled with,” she said. “Our year 8 and 9 students do the same, but for them the conferences are held fortnightly.”
Ms Roach said the program had delivered exceptional results for the school.
“We’ve seen a significant spike in our Naplan reading results since introducing the program,” Ms Roach said.
“Our recent year 9 results were double the state average. That was our test to see if we’d made a difference … after getting those sort of results, I think it’s safe to say we have.”
Unsung Heroes was established to recognise educators who do the best by their students with a minimum of fuss.
They started two years ago and this year expanded to eight categories from an initial four.
Details: au.educationhq.com
