Minister’s Arts Public Primary Educator Award 2025

Kylie Pech – Port Pirie West Primary School

Kylie intends to use her award to focus on better understanding how creativity can support healing, wellbeing and resilience. She is planning to complete an Art Therapy Certificate and a Music Therapy Course. She will also be attending the National Visual Arts Education Conference in January, and creating an “artists in residence” for her school.

Minister’s Arts Public Secondary Educator Award 2025

Suriya Down – Aberfoyle Park High School

Already a highly credentialled music educator, Suriya will use her award to complete the final stage of her Australian Kodaly Certificate Secondary – a rigorous and highly regarded qualification in music education. She will be become one of the few SA Secondary educators to hold this Secondary certification. She looks forward to sharing her learnings more broadly with the music education community in SA.

Minister’s Arts Non -Government Secondary Educator Award 2025

Marianna Mastrapasqua – Cardijn College

As part of her award, Marianna will be attending the National Visual Art Education Conference in Canberra in January and then heading from there to the 5^th National Indigenous Art Triennial event to enhance her knowledge of inclusive and culturally responsive arts education. These experiences will be augmented by an on-country immersion with local Artists and she is looking forward to using all these opportunities to drive creativity, cultural connection and inclusive learning experiences in her community

Ministers Arts Early Career Educator Award 2025

Kristen Mallia – Mark Oliphant College

As an early career educator who has in the words of her site leader “reinvigorated the Arts at their site in only four years”, she is a very worthy winner of this Award. She has re-estabished drama, relaunched Dance and created senior pathways including Integrated Learning: Performing Arts and the college’s first SACE Dance Subject. Kristen is planning a range of experiences, with one of the centrepieces being her participation in the 2026 Drama National Conference in Perth in February.

Ministers Arts Metro Preschool Award 2025

Riverbanks College Preschool

Lauren and her team support a community where one in five children start school already vulnerable in two or more domains. With this in mind, they intend to use their Award Grant to build on their existing “attachment” work with an occupational therapist and psychologist, to launch a pilot dance project, partnering with dance-theatre artist Sally Chance. They have chosen the dance medium as it offers non-verbal communication, builds trust and connection and empowers children to feel seen, heard and valued. They are ambitious and have plans to link the project across their Portfolio – so exciting times are ahead.

Ministers Arts Country Preschool Award 2025

Glencoe and District Kindergarten

Jes and the team have had a rich three-year mentorship with The Song Room and Scott Maxwell and this has been pivotal in building their confidence and knowledge to embed music authentically into their learning programme. In 2026 they are going to use their Grant to build on this by establishing an Artist in Residence programme linked to the book study around “The Creative Collection”. As a small rural community, the team, the families and the children are excited about the opportunity to broaden their artistic repertoire.

Ministers Language Immersion Scholarship Public School Educator 2025

Melissa Watt – Warradale Primary School

Melissa is a Japanese educator and intends to travel to Tokyo to do a 2 week intensive at the GenkiJACS Language School, as well as undertaking private tutorials around Japanese conversation and written skills. She will undertake a homestay to maximise her cultural experience and will connect in with a Sister School in Kokubunji to observe classes, meet staff and co-develop a communication plan between schools.

Ministers Language Immersion Scholarship Catholic School Educator 2025

Shontelle Stanyer – St Ignatius’ College

As a confident Middle School French teacher Shontelle intends to use this award to focus on developing her skills so that she can extend her knowledge and skills to teach SACE French. She is planning to travel to Aix-en-Provence in France to study at Alliance Francaise for several weeks. This will involve both small group instruction and tutoring and a range of cultural activities. Shontelle is planning to do lots of filming while there and then intends to use these images to create resources to engage learners and other French educators.

Credit Union SA Early Career Educator of the Year Award 2025

Kiara Schonberger – Business and Enterprise Teachers’ Assocaition SA

In the early stage of her career, Kiara has leapt into Association land to become heavily involved in both the Business Teachers Association of SA , and the Economic Teachers Society of SA. Kiara has contributed valuable insights to the work of both these Associations as has she has foregrounded the challenges that early career educators face. This has resulted in important changes to what is offered, and she is contributing both at her own site and beyond to influence the learning of others.

Officeworks Innovative Educator of the Year Award 2025

Emma Fowler – EdTechSA

Emma’s leadership and innovative practices have had a profound impact on the pedagogical practices around STEM and digital technologies across the regional and metro areas of our State. She uses her partnerships with industries such as Fugro, Makers Empire and Lumination and her influence through conference presentations, publications and peer coaching frameworks to support and influence others to innovate and strive to support students for their rapidly changing global society. Under her leadership, learners are not passive consumers of technology, they become creators, problem solvers and innovators.

Teachers Registration Board Early Career Mentor of the Year 2025

HAA – HASS Association Australia

Under the stewardship of President Malcolm McInerney, HAA have made an outstanding contribution to the early career educators in our State. As a team they initiated the HAA Mentor programme and it has resulted in a membership base of several hundred HASS educators, where 50% of those members are pre-service educators and 25% are early career educators. They achieved this through innovative approaches to linking the wisdom and expertise of the profession into a mentoring programme designed by the mentees themselves.  Their regular, innovative, industry-connected, Tribrid professional learning model has generated passion and teaching practices that will impact on learners for many years to come.  Their success was no more evident than at the recent Flinders University Expo, where their pre-service and early career Committee Members were a joy to watch as they powerfully connected, welcomed and supported the new cohort of University students to our profession.

Calm Wealth Outstanding Contributor to the Educator Profession 2025

Alison I’Amafana-  Australian Association of Teachers for the Deaf SA

Alison has been the driving force behind the development and national roll out of the Australian Expanded Core Curriculum – deaf. It is the first curriculum tool of its kind in Australia and provides a national framework that teachers and Teachers of the Deaf can use to track and explicitly teach the essential life and learning skills that deaf and hard-of-hearing students need beyond the standard curriculum, including skills in areas such as communication, self advocacy, social interaction and access to information. Her leadership has resulted in networks and events that have for the first time connected Teachers of the Deaf and Deaf professionals across the nation. Her colleagues noted that her achievements stand out not only for the scale of what she has achieved, but for the generosity of spirit that she has brought to every stage of the process. Alison has produced a powerful resource, redefined what collaboration and a professional culture looks like in deaf education and her achievement represents a lasting legacy for deaf and hard of hearing students across Australia. She has set a new benchmark for leadership in her part of the profession.

Innovative Association of the Year Award 2025

Home Economics Institute of SA

HEIA SA supports an aspect of learning that has a long and rich history dating back to the 1840’s but one that has more recently faced challenging times. With a rich history of providing professional learning that held to a specific professional standard, this Association team recognised that this also created an exclusive environment that didn’t reflect the current challenges faced by the education sector, particularly in the context of ongoing teacher shortages. To this end they have led the way by transforming their professional learning to focus on mentorship, early career educators and those teaching out of field. They have done this through innovative partnerships with TAFE SA and other industry leaders, and their success has been clearly evidenced by those they engage with who say they now feel professionally empowered to make sure that Home Economics remains a dynamic, accessible and future focussed subject within SA schools.

The Flinders University Outstanding Graduate Award 2025

Mary Forbes – Flinders University

Mary Forbes, recipient of the 2025 Flinders University Outstanding Graduate Award, is a first-in-family student and passionate advocate for disability rights. Deeply committed to equity and inclusion, she has devoted countless hours to supporting children with intellectual and physical disabilities and their families, including advocacy for rare conditions such as GRIN2B-related neurodevelopmental disorder. Renowned for her compassion and professionalism, Mary’s teaching and volunteer work embody care, resilience and social responsibility—qualities that make her an inspiring ambassador for Flinders University and the teaching profession.

The University of Adelaide Outstanding Graduate Award 2025 (Joint Winners)

Rhys Morgan and Alyssa Verbert – University of Adelaide

Rhys Morgan is an exceptional Master of Teaching graduate, recognised for his academic excellence, professionalism and outstanding leadership. Highly regarded by peers and staff, Rhys transformed the role of student representative through active advocacy, financial negotiations and inclusive events for both Master and Bachelor of Education students. Achieving High Distinctions in nearly all courses, Rhys consistently demonstrates intellect, empathy and adaptability—qualities that make him a truly deserving recipient of the 2025 World Teachers’ Day University Graduate Award.

Alyssa Verbart, is an exceptional graduate with specialisations in Music and German. Renowned for her creativity, professionalism and inclusive teaching, she will join Avenues College in 2026 to teach Music and establish a new Middle Years Drama program, reflecting her innovation and dedication to the arts. A compassionate and reflective educator, Alyssa’s commitment to equity and creativity ensures she will make a lasting impact on South Australian education.

The University of South Australia Outstanding Graduate Award 2025

Ellyn Read – Uni SA

Ellyn Read, a soon-to-be graduate of UniSA’s Bachelor of Early Childhood Education (Honours), has achieved a Distinction GPA and multiple University Merit Awards. Deeply committed to First Nations education, she was awarded a CRESI Vacation Research Scholarship exploring attendance patterns in small and micro schools with high Aboriginal enrolments. Currently teaching at Mimili School on the APY Lands under a Special Authority to Teach, Ellyn exemplifies professionalism, cultural responsiveness and dedication to ensuring young First Nations children experience high-quality, inclusive early education.