BEGA High School’s Denise Perry has been presented with her award for being one of the state’s top year advisers.
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Earlier this year, Ms Perry was one of four teachers who received the Student Engagement NSW Year Adviser of the Year award, which is for teachers from all school sectors.
On Friday, Student Engagement founder Tim Heinecke and director Jenni Harrington gave Ms Perry the award, which included a $1000 scholarship.
Mr Heinecke said to her credit, Ms Perry was donating the scholarship to ABOUTAsia Schools and the Landmine Museum in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Ms Perry has been a teacher for 32 years, 25 of which she has been a year adviser.
“The highlight of my teaching career would be the relationships I’ve been able to develop with my students as year adviser,” she said.
Both Mr Heinecke and Ms Harrington said Ms Perry had great relationships with her students.
“It’s all about relationships, and she’s very, very good with building relationships with her students,” Ms Harrington said.
“It’s like they’re not students – they’re extended family.”
According to Mr Heinecke, Ms Perry was a “standout” among the nominees, but it was hard to convince her to go to the Student Engagement Year Adviser Conference in November in order to accept the award.
“She was really reluctant to come along, because she said ‘that’s just what I do’,” Mr Heinecke said.
The Student Engagement awards were started as Mr Heinecke said there was nothing around which recognised teachers and the outstanding work which year advisers do.
From next year they will cover all states and territories in Australia as well as New Zealand, and Mr Heinecke hopes they will one day expand to be on TV.
Ms Perry said she was “humbled” Mr Heinecke and Ms Harrington came down from Sydney to present her the award.
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