Frankton Primary School principal Judy Dixon has been awarded a Woolf Fisher Fellowship for 2013.
This is a marvellous honour for her, following more than 40 years of dedication and commitment to the education of young Kiwis.
The fellowships reward educational excellence in teaching. The original Woolf Fisher Fellowships were awarded in 1960. Designed to send leading secondary teachers and principals overseas to examine different teaching practices, the fellowships are awarded to secondary, intermediate and primary principals and secondary teachers.
The fellowships acknowledge and encourage excellence in educational leadership and 'in-school' practice in New Zealand.
Judy will spend 10 weeks in North America and Europe and will attend a 10-day leadership course at Harvard University in Boston. She is one of three New Zealand primary principals to receive this award, which is fully funded by the Woolf Fisher Foundation.
Fellows are measured primarily by the achievements of the schools they lead, or of the students they teach.
They must also demonstrate some of the qualities that Sir Woolf Fisher admired - integrity, leadership, bold vision, exceptional zeal, keenness and capacity for work. No applications for fellowships are accepted. Instead, fellowships are conferred by the Woolf Fisher trustees in accord with Sir Woolf's wishes that a 'magic of surprise' be associated with the naming of the awards. The trustees use a system of nomination which seeks to ensure the awards are made to worthy principals and teachers across a range of schools and subjects.
