winner: Secondary School of the Year - Government

Templestowe College

Stephen Clayton

Head of Experiential Learning

Stephen Clayton is the lead experiential learning educator at the Blackham Environmental and Conservation Centre (BECC). After receiving his Bachelor of Applied Science – Natural Resource Management from Roseworthy Agricultural College, he spent the next 18 years working for NSW National Parks and the South Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service. With a passion for empowering others with his knowledge of our natural resources and cultural heritage, Stephen completed a Graduate Diploma in Education and joined Trinity College, where his love for nature and education coalesced. With a gift for building rapport with young people, Stephen now shares his passion for conservation land management and First Nations’ learnings with those students who visit the BECC.

Head of Experiential Learning

Stephen Clayton

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@trinitycollegesouthaustralia

Katrina Cole

Experiential Primary Educator

Katrina Cole

@TDSLaw

Katrina Cole is the Blackham Environmental and Conservation Centre’s (BECC’s) junior primary/primary experiential learning educator. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Natural Resource Management at the University of Adelaide in 1997 and a Bachelor’s in Early Childhood Education at the University of South Australia in 1999. Katrina joined Trinity College in 2001 and, in her more than 21 years of service to primary education, has been nominated four times for a National Excellence in Teaching Award (NEiTA). With her extensive classroom experience, Katrina joined the BECC where her innate capacity for pastoral care has allowed her to effectively adapt the traditional early-years pedagogy to a nature-based learning environment.

Templestowe College, near Melbourne in Victoria, is widely regarded as one of the most innovative schools in Australia. The school has 1,250 students from Years 7 to 12 and just over 130 staff. TC, which we have come to be known as, has a stage- not age-based learning approach that allows all students to have an individualised learning program with no compulsory subjects, instead allowing all students to select their subjects based upon their abilities, strengths, passions and pathway goals, with a choice of over 150 subjects. Being a progressive school with a purpose to challenge the status quo so that everyone is empowered to learn ensures that TC continues to push the boundaries around what education can look like. This includes initiatives such as no school bells, no uniform, calling staff by their first names, student interview panels when employing staff, student leadership structures designed by students, a student employability skills program that sees students working for the school, and many others that raise the levels of students’ agency and engagement.