SA’s best teachers of 2021 named

The 2021 SA Teacher of the Year awards have been announced – see the entire list here of all the winners.

Breaking down the barriers that stop children from being confident about maths has earned Liana McCurry the title of Primary School Teacher of the Year.

Ms McCurry, from Ardtornish Primary in St Agnes, was one of 13 public sector employees and teams whose work was awarded on Friday night.

A year 3 and 4 teacher, Ms McCurry said if students struggled in their early years, those negative attitudes could become embedded.

“I always enjoyed maths when I was at school,” she said.

“So when I became a teacher I wanted to focus on kids who struggled and overcome that negative mindset that kids can have toward maths.”

She follows what is called an explicit direct instruction method.

“It’s based on ‘I do, we do, you do and then you do independently’,” she said.

She believes in using a multisensory approach, giving students hands-on equipment and tools.

“We need to move away from the idea that hands-on materials you can manipulate are only for students who are struggling,” she said.

“We do lots of activities where all the kids use the materials.”

Ms McCurry’s methods have led to a 315 per cent increase in assessment scores for her students.

Liana McCurry, maths teacher at Ardtornish Primary School, with students Eli, Liam, Amanda and Ella. Picture Mark Brake

She also shares her experience with colleagues in many other schools.

Education Minister John Gardner said all of the SA Public Education Awards winners were passionate and driven to achieve the best outcomes for students.

“Everyone in our state’s public education system is working together as a connected team towards one goal, to deliver world class education for all children and young people in SA,” Mr Gardner said.

From secondary schools, Faith Brohier from Brighton and Jodi Long from Renmark were joint winners.

Ms Brohier has inspired a love of science while Ms Long’s students have excelled in digital media.

The winners each receive $10,000 and runners-up $2000 for professional development.

The awards to teachers followed Children’s Week awards to students presented last week.

At a primary level those awards went to St Joseph’s School Kingswood student Thomas Brooke for his generosity helping disadvantaged students and to Thomas and Matthew Sullivan from Encounter Lutheran College for promoting sustainability.

Taya Dabrowski from Kapunda and Jordan Lewis from Cowell were the secondary school winners.