TEACHERS from two high schools in Orange have been selected to receive Minister’s Awards for Excellence.
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Orange High School maths teacher Jo Beeby will receive an Excellence in Teaching award and the school’s P and C president Keith Lummis will receive a Parent of the Year Award.
Canobolas Rural Technology High School will receive three awards for its Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) program and Canobolas High Performance Athletes (CHPA) program.
They will include a Teacher in Excellence Award for STEM head teacher Matt Scott, CHPA will receive an award for Excellence in a School Program and STEM will receive a commendation award.
“My award will be based on the implementation and setting up the STEM program and consistently higher results for design and technology we’ve been getting her at the school for a consecutive period of time,” Mr Scott said.
He said this is the first year the school is running STEM in its current format and was pleased an outside organisation saw merit in what they are doing.
Mr Lummis has two children at Orange High School, Matthew in year 12 and Declan in year 7, and said he has been involved with P and C groups at various schools for 15 years and since 2006 in Orange.
“I was pretty excited I guess, a bit honoured and humbled,” Mr Lummis said.
Mrs Beeby is a former Orange High School students and said she started her first year of teaching in 1989 and has been teaching at the school for 21 years.
Although she was delighted to win a minister’s award she did not believe she did anything out of the ordinary and considered her passion and approach part of the job.
“I feel it’s what every teacher does,” she said.
“I love my maths and hopefully [the students] love their maths as well.”
Mr Lummis said although Mrs Beeby felt she worked as hard as other teachers,she had a good reputation.
“The kids love her, she’s highly regarded by all the staff and highly regarded by students,”
The awards recognise NSW public school teachers for delivering high quality education to students.
The awards will be presented by Education Minister Adrian Piccoli and NSW Department of Education secretary Mark Scott at Parliament House, Sydney on September 20.