Cranbourne Primary School principal Lachlan Yeates has been recognised nationally for his work in “transforming a school through evidence, trust and community”.
He was named a recipient of Jane Hansen’s 2025 Teach For Australia Alumni Award for his leadership as both a Teach For Australia (TFA) alumnus and principal at Cranbourne Primary School, where student results and attendance have climbed above state averages since his appointment in 2021.
“It had gone through a period of some quite challenging times. Over the last 15 years, student numbers have dropped from 900 to 600, down to about 200 students,” Lachlan recalled when he first joined the school in 2021.
“There’d been some challenges with student learning data, and some challenging student behaviour.
“For ten years, the school had attendance levels lower than the state average and similar schools, and our NAPLAN results had been lower than state averages and similar schools.
“And as a smaller school, many students coming to the school had additional needs. The school worked really hard to support those students, but that also led to quite a few challenges in terms of student behaviours.”
Since taking the helm, Lachlan has steered the school through a remarkable turnaround.
Attendance rates, student engagement, and learning outcomes have all risen sharply, with 85 per cent of Year 5 students achieving “strong” or “exceeding” NAPLAN results in all areas, which Lachlan believed is an “outstanding result” given the school’s high proportion of students from disadvantaged and additional language backgrounds.
He credited the school’s improvement to evidence-based teaching, high expectations, and a strong emphasis on well-being, introducing programs such as a therapy dog, sensory room, and extensive family outreach.
“In Maths, we typically teach students almost a year ahead of where they should be in the curriculum, and so set very high expectations,” Lachlan said.
“Our teachers are constantly checking to see whether students understand what’s being taught and then adjusting their lessons as they go to teach them.
“We also use some innovative approaches, such as daily reviews, to make sure that we’re constantly rehearsing old information, so students don’t forget, and it really sticks in their long-term memory.
“Because of those successes, according to PAT, which is a standardised maths assessment, our students improve twice as fast as students in a typical school across Australia. They’re learning about two years of learning in a single year, based on that data from last year.”
Under Lachlan’s leadership, Cranbourne Primary has also become a hub for community connection, securing multiple grants and partnerships with groups including Headspace, Monash Health, and Community Hubs Australia.
The school’s in-house after-school care service, English classes for parents who speak additional languages, and cultural programs have strengthened local ties.
Originally planning to be an investment banker, Lachlan joined Teach For Australia more than a decade ago and said the experience reshaped his life.
“Teaching wasn’t really on my radar. When I heard about the program and decided to teach just for two years, and absolutely loved it, and then ended up staying in education, and the rest is history,” he recalled.
“Teach For Australia identifies high-performing people and puts them in schools. I feel very honoured to be kind of amongst some great company.”
Having been teaching for about 15 years, Lachlan still loves it and thinks he really found his place.
“I think programs like Teach for Australia are a great way to identify people from other areas, bring them into education,” he said.
“While I had lots of learning to do in teaching, and I’m still learning a lot about education, I think I was able to bring in skills around data management and strategic thinking and planning into education. And I think that that has enabled me to kind of add some extra value to the schools that I’ve worked in in a range of different areas.
“That has been really helpful, not just for my career or my school, but also for the broader system.”
