We have the pleasure of announcing that this week, our Principal, Mrs Karen Yager, was the recipient of the Innovation Excellence Award from the Professional Teachers Council of NSW.
Mrs Yager received this prestigious award for her passion for innovation and excellence and for the genuine lifelong success and happiness of students.
The Institute for Educational Leadership in Australia shares the following:
Karen Yager is an astute school leader with a passion for innovation and excellence and for the genuine lifelong success and happiness of her students.
This is clearly evident in her introduction of The Hills Passport for the Future, where students utilise an app to record their achievements they have made beyond the standard curriculum. This micro-credentialing recognises that student achievement is more than a grade in their HSC courses, and it starts with the youngest children in the Early Learning Centre through to Year 12.
Karen pioneered a partnership with the Transdisciplinary School at the UTS that provided an opportunity for Year 10 students to work on a project to develop strategies to assist the school in moving towards a carbon neutral future. Completion of the program was recognised at a first year university level.
This enabled over 100 Hills Grammar students in Year 10 to be recognised as completing the course in the first two years. Karen is currently working with HEX High at USyd on another initiative for this year’s Year 10 cohort. Karen has, of course, been an initiator and key driver in the adoption of Al approaches at Hills Grammar, making Hills Grammar a leading school in the Al space. Karen has developed a strong framework on the use of Al with staff and students within an ethical framework. Karen has a belief in student agency. This has led to the creation of opportunities with the Future Now Taskforce, a stakeholder focussed group that involves students, staff and parents in looking at the future of education at Hills Grammar School to ensure that it remains cutting edge, meeting the needs of the next generation of students. Karen is also initiating an Action Learning Program, based on the work Karen is undertaking on teacher agency as part of her PhD. Karen is highly innovative and is inarguably an outstanding candidate for this award.