By Marcus Uhe
Strong leaders, a familial legacy and a desire to innovate has seen Clyde Creek Primary School grade one teacher Amy Davis recognised as one of the best educators Victoria has to offer.
Ms Davis was crowned Outstanding Early Career Primary Teacher at the 2022 Victorian Education Excellence Awards on Friday 21 October at a ceremony at the Regent Plaza Ballroom in Melbourne.
The award recognises effective and innovative teachers in the first five years of their teaching career who have demonstrated excellence in teaching practice at a Victorian government primary school, and have made a significant contribution to improving student achievement, engagement, and wellbeing.
The Professional Learning Team leader of grade one and two at CCPS is the daughter and granddaughter of teachers and knew from an early age that she wanted to follow in their footsteps.
Her quest for improvement and a love of mathematics saw her design and develop a visual-reliant resource to personalise student learning, to identify where individual students most need support students and address their specific needs.
“There’s towers of different coloured ‘Lego’ bricks,” Ms Davis said.
“It’s based on building blocks and prioritising students’ needs.
“It’s been my baby, I worked on for three years.”
Ms Davis has experienced a unique beginning to her teaching career, with 2022 being the first year spent predominantly in the classroom after her first two were dogged by Covid-19 complications.
“I started teaching in 2020 and got a good three months in the classroom teaching prep before lockdown,” Ms Davis said.
“Teaching prep is whole other ball game. They (the students) don’t know what school is about and we taught them four or five times throughout the year as they returned from remote learning.
“It was an interesting time to start teaching but what I learnt was huge. It revolutionised the way we teach. We’ve gone back to basics and we’re keeping it simple for students.”
By teaching students at the beginning of their educational journey, her goal is foster a love of maths.
“In the early years you have to make learning fun. Get the students to investigate world around them, so they’ve got real world application.
“With maths, all they need is a problem, a dice and things to count with. They can do almost everything with those; counting, division, measuring, addition.”
She credited the leadership team at Clyde Creek, including Principal Jodie Bray and Assistant Principal Sarah Smith, for accelerating her development and thanked them for the opportunities she has been given to help shape the culture of new school in its first year of operation.
Ms Bray said she was “beyond proud” of Ms Davis.
“She’s an exceptional early career teacher and leader,” she said.
“Her strengths in relationships is a real positive.
“We’ve had great feedback from the parent community about her as a teacher, it’s overwhelmingly positive.”
The Victorian Education Excellence Awards celebrate the state’s most inspirational teachers, principals, business managers, support staff and schools that work to improve schools and help students to achieve their best by developing skills and learning outcomes.
The awards also support the continued professional development of staff, with professional learning grants of $20,000 on offer for each individual award and $25,000 for each team award.
