2 August 2006
School Leadership Award Winners Announced
The 2006 winners of Linking Minds, an international award for young teachers, have just been selected.
The four winners are; Hurae White, Nawton School, Hamilton, Zane Wilson, St Clair Primary School, Dunedin, Rebecca
Brown, Thorndon School and Katie Roche, Onslow College both from Wellington.
Linking Minds is an international award, giving outstanding young teachers the opportunity to travel to the United
Kingdom on a fully-funded professional development programme. The award is sponsored by the NZ-UK Link Foundation,
British Council, New Zealand Teachers Council and the Ministry of Education.
The programme aims to promote high teaching standards by providing international experience for teachers early in their
careers.
The theme of this year's Linking Minds visit is professional leadership. All four teachers have taken on leadership
roles in their schools very early in their career, and were seen as having significant potential to be future leaders in
the New Zealand education system.
The selected teachers will spend a fortnight hosted by a Gloucestershire local authority in the UK. Gloucestershire
established an accredited satellite office of the National College for School Leadership in 2003, and is recognised as
one of the counties at the forefront of school leadership.
While in Gloucestershire, the teachers will have the opportunity to learn about latest trends and initiatives in the UK,
and to share current thinking and ideas from New Zealand.
This is the fourth year Linking Minds has been offered. Director of British Council New Zealand, Paula Middleton, says
the scheme aims to help create world class teaching practices. "It gives some aspirational young New Zealand teachers,
our future leaders, and a chance to learn and share best practice."
Notes for Editors
Linking Minds is administered by the British Council, the Ministry of Education, the New Zealand Teachers Council and
the NZ-UK Link Foundation, in association with British Airways.
British Council is the UK's agency for international cultural relations. In New Zealand its work focuses on connecting
aspirational young New Zealanders with the best of contemporary UK culture, through a range of events, ideas and
opportunities.
ENDS