Exceptional educators from the NSW public school system are among Australians recognised yesterday for their service to the community as part of the King’s Birthday Honours.
Bathurst High School principal Ken Barwick and Strathfield Girls High School principal Mechel Pikoulas both received an Order of the Medal of Australia (OAM) for their service to education.
The Public Service Medal for outstanding public service was awarded to:
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Denise Robens of Regentville Public School for her outstanding public service in classroom teaching
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Paul Hughes, Principal of Rosemeadow Public School, for his leadership in the public education system
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Dr Ann Daly for educational innovation in supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
NSW Education Secretary Murat Dizdar said he was delighted to see the outstanding work of public school educators from both the city and country recognised.
He said the public education recipients had demonstrated extraordinary service in the classroom, leading schools and in supporting students from some of our most disadvantaged communities.
“Ken, Mechel, Paul, Ann and Denise represent the incredible commitment staff across NSW demonstrate every day in supporting our students to be the best they can be,” Mr Dizdar said.
“They are all remarkable professionals who go beyond the job description to make a positive difference to students lives. I congratulate them all on their well-deserved honours.”
Mr Barwick, who has worked for three decades in secondary education, said he thought he was being scammed when he first received the news.
“You get this short email and it says ‘Honours’ and asks you to click on a link. We all know you don’t do that,” he said.
“I found a Canberra phone number and called them and they told me the ‘email is real’.”
As a young boy in Bathurst, Mr Barwick was forced to leave home at age 11 to escape a difficult home environment.
He received support from numerous people in the community to stay at school, among them his high school maths teacher to whom he vowed he would one day return to Bathurst High School as principal.
It is a vow he kept, now entering his seventh year leading the western NSW high school and surprised to find himself on the King’s Birthday honour list.
Mr Barwick said it was “humbling” to receive the award.
“I feel like I owe the system, because of what it did for me when I was a kid,” he said.
“Teachers don’t get a lot of accolades, but this award tells me there are people who appreciate what we do on a daily basis.
“A lot of teachers don’t realise the impact they have on young people’s lives, so I see this as recognition for all those teachers who put a lot of time into the kids they teach and the families they look after.”
Ms Pikoulas has been a high school teacher for the past 30 years and a principal for a decade. She led Cumberland High School, where 70 per cent of students speak a language other than English, through the pandemic.
Now principal at Strathfield Girls High School, she told local media she was proud to receive the award.
“I’m feeling very humbled and privileged to be recognised in this way, when all I have done is what I love to do—and that is help young people and inspire hope,” Ms Pikoulas told The Greek Herald.
One of her first memories of wanting to be a teacher was at the age of four, but it was her year 9 history teacher who inspired her to follow that dream.
“As a migrant girl from a migrant family, I didn’t have that self-belief. It was the words of my teacher that inspired me to pursue my dream,” she said.