Whangarei teacher Denise Humphries takes 2017 Unsung Hero award

Whangarei teacher Denise Humphries has been named the Leadership Education HQ Unsung Heroes award winner for 2017.

The Whangarei Heads community has worked together to highlight one of its most treasured teachers.

Denise Humphries is the well-deserving recipient of the Leadership Education HQ Unsung Heroes award of 2017.

She was nominated by her colleague and "school daughter", Mirianga Silipa.

When Ms Silipa received an email requesting nominations for the Unsung Heroes awards last year, Ms Humphries was the first person she thought of.

"Denise is such an amazing person, very humble but amazing. She is an overall leader," said Ms Silipa.

Ms Humphries and Ms Silipa have worked together at Whangarei Heads School for the past six years.

They have collaboratively taught as team teachers in their joint classroom, Kid Space, for the last two years, teaching new entrants to Year 2 students.

After being nominated by Ms Silipa, Ms Humphries was one of three shortlisted for the leadership category.

She then went on to attain the most community votes and win the leadership award.
The Whangarei Heads community worked really hard to campaign for Ms Humphries as other nominees for the award were from much larger cities like Auckland and Christchurch.

The small school of 120 kids advertised the link to vote for their valued teacher in their newsletters and on their Dojo page (a forum they use to contact parents).

"This hard work and voting effort paid off," said Ms Silipa.

"Denise was so excited. She hates a big fuss made about her... everyone thought she deserved it. No one better could have won it."

When Ms Humphries discovered she was nominated for the award, she said she was "pretty shocked".

"It was totally out of the blue. I hadn't even thought about winning."

Ms Silipa didn't tell her "school mum" she was nominating her and Ms Humphries said "that was the best surprise".

"Being nominated was really humbling. We're part of a team so you don't really want to stand out. It was so nice to have so much support from the community."

The Whangarei Heads teacher and Deputy Principal of 18 years can now enjoy a trip to Melbourne and free entrance to a teaching expo worth $750.

Ms Silipa left Whangarei Heads School at the end of last year and is starting a new teaching position at Whangarei Primary this year.

Ms Humphries said she was going to miss her but it was really important for young teachers to move around and get lots of experience.