Therese Turner-Jones, head of English at Ascham University in New South Wales, is an educator who thinks in the electricity of narrative to influence the advancement of younger minds. Her educating accomplishments have led to nationwide recognition, which includes an Excellence Award as Division Head of the 12 months at the Australian Education and learning Awards and a location on The Educator’s checklist of Most Influential Educators in 2022. Turner-Jones’ function has also lifted Ascham’s rank in HSC effects amongst impartial colleges in New South Wales, making Ascham initial amongst all impartial educational institutions in 2020 and fourth in 2021.
Staying named as an Influential Educator suggests the environment to her, she says, because it highlights her initiatives in “building trainer capacity” – 1 of her priorities considering the fact that acquiring her Master’s of Educational Management in 2014.
“I feel that it is genuinely significant from an English viewpoint where by literacy, of system, is our concentration, as very well as educating wonderful works of literature and having learners reply through producing. So that strategy of reading and writing – the pairing of them – is so considerable.”
Turner-Jones defines her instructional philosophy as being affected by three key techniques dependent on the Dalton Strategy: initially is the Assignment that “everybody learns from in a distinct 12 months group and the crucial constructions that they are essentially going to react to,” second is the Lesson that provides the assigned work, and third is the Analyze, which completes the framework for mastering and acquiring feedback. The Dalton Plan – created by Helen Parkhurst in Dalton, Massachusetts, at the transform of the 20th century – is a principle that encourages a “culture reached by way of person enhancement and by way of collective cooperation”. The intention is to centre the function of education on daily life, not only on the college surroundings.
What reinforces Turner-Jones’ instruction philosophy is her “[commitment] to excellence, [ambition] to make a difference, [and being] in regular awe of what learners provide to their review of English,” she states. “It’s literature that really underpins every little thing that I do, so it’s a extremely enriching [and] worthwhile working experience.”
This 12 months, Turner-Jones is concentrating on literacy and the travel for excellence, not only within just the university but in the wider local community. She thinks that her award brings a degree of impact to inspire a increased degree of expertise and group engagement.
For educators and individuals who are looking at this career, Turner-Jones emphasises the require to function on interactions and preserve a optimistic perspective. This is specifically vital at a time when some schools are continue to employing a hybrid design of distant and encounter-to-experience studying. She also considers cheerfulness, optimism and wellbeing as very important to an environment the place learners prosper.
To more boost learning results, she makes recorded classes and other assets available to her pupils. “I know that the learners uncover that amazing mainly because they can listen to [the recordings]. It is like a university solution exactly where they can in fact adhere to up and hear their teacher,” she states.
“And so a lot of occasions the college students compliment how the teacher’s voice actually soothes, [and] it is the teacher’s voice that makes them experience that they can reach. It’s these types of a actually excellent technique for wellbeing.”
Making noticeable wellbeing an vital component of Ascham School’s philosophy across the tutorial and pastoral regions is just one way to make sure students’ good results. This is a problem for educators functioning in college systems that have to cope “with illness, with reduction, with grief and frequently the lack of a feeling of connection,” claims Turner-Jones. However, she is confident that Ascham can help its students’ demands and make them “great learners inside the collective” by suggests of its effective mastering point of view constructed on the Dalton System.
Watch the full job interview below