Secretary’s Award for Excellent Service – Teaching and School Operations 2024
The Secretary’s Award for Excellent Service is a prestigious award presented to individuals who have shown outstanding effort in improving the quality of teaching and/or learning outcomes in the NSW public education sector. It recognises an individual’s achievements in providing excellent service and their contributions to their professional communities.
Who can be nominated?
For a nominee to be eligible for the award, they must be:
- Current employees in NSW government preschools or schools
- Eligible employees includes casual, temporary staff and contractors who will still be employed by the Department of Education when the awards ceremony is held.
- Current employees who will not retire or otherwise leave the service before the end of 2024
To be nominated for a Teaching award, the nominee must be a current:
- Teacher,
- Principal
- or Counsellor
To be nominated for a Non-Teaching award, the nominee must be a current:
- Teachers aide,
- SLSO,
- AEO,
- HSLO,
- CLO,
- SAM,
- SAO,
- ITT,
- TSO,
- GA,
- Farm Assistant
- Early Childhood Educator
- or Business Manager
Who can nominate?
Members of preschool or school communities may nominate an individual for the Award. Nominators can include, but are not limited to school principals, head teachers, directors, parents and/or guardians.
What are the selection criteria?
The Award recognises the achievements in providing excellent service and contributions to the professional education communities. Nominations must clearly state how the nominee goes above and beyond in their role and should include explicit evidence/examples.
Individuals who are nominated must demonstrate:
- Excellence in teaching or administrative practice that has made a significant and measurable contribution to improved learner outcomes in learning environments and school operations;
- Initiation or contribution to identify and implement improvements in school and administrative operations;
- Strong support for the professional development and wellbeing of other colleagues;; and
- Maintaining and developing a strong connection between the school and community
How many awards are made each year?
Up to 10 awards may be presented each year, including 1 award specifically for an early childhood educator, and 1 award specifically for school administrative support staff. The selection committee reserves the right to award fewer than 10 awards if nomination quality is not sufficiently high, or if applicants do not provide adequate evidence of achievements and outcomes. A school may submit a maximum of 2 nominations per year for this award.
Who selects the recipients?
The selection panel will include representatives from the NSW Department of Education, the Public Education Foundation and other representatives from the education sector. All nominations will be reviewed according to the criteria set out.
How to nominate?
All nominations for the Minister’s and Secretary’s Awards are submitted via the Public Education Foundation’s online application system – PEFApply.
Nominator – an individual who has knowledge of the nominee’s professional work and can provide details of the nominees achievements in providing excellent service and their contributions to their professional communities.
Referee – either the Deputy Principal, Principal or Director, Educational Leadership (DEL).
Endorser – All nominations must be endorsed by the school Principal (or Director, Educational Leadership {DEL} in the case of a DP or Principal nomination}. The Principal/DEL is also asked to provide a citation to be used in the Awards program should the nomination be successful.
The reference must be provided by a person who is not the nominator OR the endorser of the nomination.
Please note – due to the high number of nominations received, no additional attachments will be considered during nomination reviews by the Selection Panel.
Does the nominee know they are nominated?
Yes. Nominees are required to agree to their nomination via an online acknowledgment request sent to them by the nominee.
Submitting a nomination:
To access the application system use this link – PEFApply – then click on the relevant award.
Prior to starting the online process, the nominator may prefer to gather the necessary information ready to submit:
- Nominee and school details (including phone numbers, emails and DoE serial number)
- Nominator’s statement supporting the nominee’s achievements (completed online)
- Describe how the nominee has shown excellence in teaching practice or school service that has made a significant and measurable contribution to improved student outcomes through supporting and implementing improvements in learning environments, administrative and school operations, wellbeing, and/or community relationships. (max 200 words)
- Please give an example of how, through identifying needs and applying effective practices, the nominee initiated, or contributed to, improvements in student learning, administrative and school operations, wellbeing, and/or community relationships . (max 200 words)
- Explain how the nominee is actively involved in collaborating and sharing knowledge with other educators/colleagues which results in tangible improvements across classrooms and/or the school. (max 200 words)
- Nominee’s endorsement (the nominator must initiate a request via the online nomination to the Nominee. This will result in an email being sent to the Nominee requesting them to accept the nomination)
- A reference from the nominees Deputy Principal or DEL confirming the nominees commitment to delivering high quality education to students and their contributions to their professional community (uploaded pdf – maximum 300 words) Note – if the nominee is the DP, the reference should be provided by the Principal and the endorsement and citation provided by the DEL. Where the nomination is for a Principal, the reference can be from the DP or another Principal, with the endorsement and citation provided by the DEL.
- A photograph of the nominee (preferably head shot only – to be used in the Awards program should the nomination be successful)
- Principal/DEL endorsement and citation (the nominator must initiate a request via the online nomination to the Principal/DEL. This will result in an email being sent to the Principal/DEL requesting them to endorse the nomination, and provide a 100 word citation online).
When is the closing date for nominations?
Nominations close at 11.59pm on Tuesday 14th May 2024. No late nominations will be considered.
When are the Awards announced?
Nominators will be advised of the outcome of their nominations in early July 2024.
Winners of the Minister’s and Secretary’s Awards for Excellence will be officially announced at the Public Education Awards event, to be held at the Sydney Town Hall on Monday 5th August 2024.
For further information including terms and conditions
Call the Public Education Foundation on 02 7814 2806 or email us at info@publiceducationfoundation.org.au.
