Intermediate principal rewarded for providing teaching excellence
The Whakatane Beacon Wednesday, 05 November 2008
WHAKATANE Intermediate School principal Doug McLean has won one of New Zealand’s highest professional accolades - a Woolf Fisher fellowship.
The fellowships, which are designed to reward teaching excellence, allow recipients to spend time overseas examining different teaching practices.
While originally restricted to secondary teachers and principals, they are now also awarded to intermediate and primary school principals, and polytechnic senior managers.
Mr McLean intends spending his fellowship travelling through Africa, Europe, Canada and the United States.
His itinerary, which has yet to be finalised, will include two weeks at Harvard University in the United States and some time in Finland, a country that has the highest performing education system in the world.
The fellowship came as a surprise to Mr McLean, who said the first thing he thought when he heard about it was: “What have I done to deserve it? There must be better people out there.”
Humbled by the award, he said it was not only a huge thrill but an indication of the people he worked with.
“I couldn’t have done it without them,” he said. “I’ve got strong support in the intermediate and really good people I work with.”
There are no applications accepted for the annual awards, with the fellowships conferred by the Woolf Fisher trustees in accordance with Sir Woolf’s wishes that “the magic of surprise” always be associated with the announcement and that no deserving teachers are rejected because of the limited number of awards.
The trustees use a system of nomination which seeks to ensure that the awards are made to worthy principals and teachers across a representative range of schools and subjects.
