Educational Awards

The inaugural education awards was held in November last year and recognises students in our care from Prep to Year 12 who have shown outstanding improvement in their results and engagement with their schoolwork – and all while overcoming huge personal challenges.

The event, which will now be held annually, received 58 nominations for educational achievement across residential units, foster care, kinship care, therapeutic care packages, and COMPASS. Held as an online event, it was wonderful to see all our primary, secondary school children and young people gather around the screen and celebrate their achievements.

Each of the children attending was delivered a gift pack to open during the event. Those shortlisted for awards, or winners of awards, received a certificate and the winners received a trophy to sit proudly in their room. The inaugural Stephen Newton Scholarship was also awarded to those of our young people in Out-of-Home Care going on to do Year 12. They each received $2,000 towards school costs. We were delighted to award 12 recipients in the first year of this scholarship and wish them well for the year.

EDUCATION AWARD ENTRY

Jason* had significant personal challenges with school engagement and learning. He experienced anxiety and found it difficult to focus in class. When AV staff first met Jason, he hadn’t been in school for over a year.

Working with AV’s Kinship foster program and TEACHaR (Transforming Educational Achievement of Children at Risk), he has since demonstrated significant improvement in school engagement and is now fully immersed within the school community. He is striving and working hard to finish school and thinking about his next steps.

It was an enormous effort for Jason to step back into school. His confidence in the way he began to express himself and speak fondly of being at school was a credit to him and his teachers as well as the measures put in place to support him. Support staff said that Jason is “a pleasure to teach and he is always willing to work”. He has shown his resilience in a very tough year and continues to work on overcoming his anxiety.

* Name has been changed to protect privacy

Back to news