A PASSION FOR EDUCATION is something John Paul College principal Karen Spiller lives and breathes.
Education is also something Ms Spiller thought about since she was quite young.
“I’m an only child, and every day when I used to head off to school as a primary school student, I used to leave my teddies and dollies lined up outside my bedroom door as I went off to catch the bus,” Ms Spiller said.
“Then in the afternoon, I would come home and my dad would put a blackboard on our back deck and I would line up the teddies and the dolls, and I would get the long-suffering Collie dog, and teach them the things I had learnt that day.
“I don’t know where that came from, but I just did it. I guess I just always thought that I wanted to be a teacher, and I’ve been blessed with such a wonderful career.”
Recently, Ms Spiller was named in Educator Australia’s Hot List 2020 which recognises Australia’s most influential educators.
“I’ve spent all my career working in independent schools, and I’m passionate about independent schools, but more importantly I’m passionate about the quality of education for all students in Australia, and one would hope, globally,” she said.
“Every child, particularly in a wealthy country like Australia, should have a quality education no matter where he or she goes to school, whether that’s state, Catholic or independent.”
Ms Spiller, who is also Chair of Independent Schools Queensland, set the bar when her Daisy Hill school put in place a system to adapt to COVID-19 restrictions.
John Paul college created a successful balance between on and off-screen learning for students through videos, learning sharing platforms, video conferencing and live chat.
“2020 has delivered significant curveballs to all of us in our life and our workplaces, and probably no more than in schools,” Ms Spiller said. “In the space of a week, our teachers literally moved from full-time face to face teaching to full-time interactive online learning for their students, and they embraced that for between six to eight weeks, depending on the year levels they were teaching.
“That was really challenging for teachers teaching five-year-olds, but we did it, and we’ve learnt a lot about ourselves.
“There’s a huge degree of pride in the teachers. In April or May, I could walk up to the staffroom and the teachers were just working together, supporting each other, and they were so proud of what they were doing to ensure both the academic welfare, as well as the academic learning of every student in their care.”
Ms Spiller’s dedication to education during her career, was most notably recognised when she was awarded the 2017 Order of Australia Medal for her service to education and mentoring.
“I’m just passionate about the opportunities that good quality educational programs, good quality educational schools can give to every young Australian,” she said.
Ms Spiller also holds membership on several boards and advisory bodies including Yalari, Independent Schools Council of Australia, and the International Education and Training Advisory Group.
She has also introduced a nationally recognised certification program called HALT, Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher.
“There are actually two different certifications, Highly Accomplished and then Lead Teacher, which is the most significant one of those two,” Ms Spiller said. “This is an externally offered certification program that schools and staff can enter.
“At John Paul College we’re very keen to support our teachers to enter this program. We have an aspiration that ideally 100 per cent of our teachers are HALT, but at the moment we’re working towards 10, then 15 per cent of teachers achieving HALT certification.
“That unlocks significant salary benefits for them, but more importantly it really does show they are leading professionals in their field and they lead other people. We really want to make sure, as professionals, as teachers, that we really are the best that we can be in the classroom.”
According to research, Ms Spiller said, the single most effective way of changing and increasing student outcomes is the quality of the teacher in every individual classroom, which the HALT program helps achieve.
“It doesn’t matter which piece of research you look at, the teacher in the classroom makes a significant difference to individual outcomes,” she said.
“Everything we can do from a professional learning perspective to train our teachers, not just as knowing their content, but making sure their pedagogical practices are really robust and are based on the latest research, is to ensure they know how best to teach to help students to learn, is a critical thing.”
