Narre Warren North Primary School doesn’t boast state-of-the-art sporting facilities.
The school uses a multipurpose room in place of a gym and it leases an oval to use for outdoor physical education classes.
But the school’s PE teacher Vanessa Wilson has defied the odds of limited facilities to win PE Teacher of the Year at the Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation (ACHPER) awards last week.
“This is the most prestigious award that a PE teacher can be acknowledged for. It means [she] has been recognised as the best PE teacher in all of the independent, catholic and government schools in Victoria,” Narre Warren North Primary School assistant principal Erin Harman said.
“We are very proud of her, particularly because of her success with our students with limited resourcing.”
The award, which was made possible by an anonymous nomination from a member of the public, came as a surprise to Vanessa.
“When you compare yourself to other schools who have these great facilities and really different timetables and extra staff within their PE department…it was kind of like a wow moment,” Vanessa said.
“For us, if it rains, our program completely changes because you don’t have that facility to carry on…you can’t really run the lesson how you’d like to run the lesson.”
The mother of one said her passion for PE was influenced by her own childhood sport teacher.
“In primary school I had a really great PE teacher, Mr Smythe and as soon as I had Mr Smythe as a teacher, from the start of Grade 2, I said to mum and dad ‘I’m gonna be a PE teacher when I grow up’,” Vanessa recalled.
“He was a great role model, he was always positive and supportive and used to challenge me, particularly in the running space. I didn’t train as a runner, but he saw something in me even back then.
“That’s what I hope the kids sense from me, that I support them and they can feel that positivity and that warmth that they can try anything and it’s okay if you don’t get it right, it’s okay if you fall over or you don’t quite get it this time, or you don’t win.
“It doesn’t matter, just keeping brushing yourself off, get up and have another go.”
Despite the challenges the school’s PE department has faced, Ms Harman said Vanessa has been successful in passing on her passion for sport to her students.
“PE and sport is huge here now. We have students that will go out and do extra running at home because she’s been able to give them the strategies, because she’s a runner herself,” Ms Harman said.
“So she’s definitely an inspiration.”
Vanessa agreed students at the school are determined and engaged when it comes to sport classes.
“If I have to set up equipment, all of a sudden one of the kids will go, ‘Alright let’s do a running activity’, and they’ll all get up and start doing it as a group,” she said.
“These are Grade 3 and 4 students and seeing them cohesively running back and forth along the court, just really challenging themselves.
“We’ve had a lot of kids this year who have represented district, division and then regional as well. We’ve seen many kids representing at regional in different sports and not just the one sport.”
An avid long distance runner, Vanessa is also akin to success outside of her professional career.
She is currently the female Victorian marathon champion and recently finished fourth in the female division of the Melbourne Marathon.
“When I had my daughter, my husband said let’s do a Parkrun, so we did the Parkrun with the pram and he said, ‘Oh gosh you ran like that in 22 minutes’,” she said.
“So my goal four years ago was just to break 20 minutes for a five kilometre, and just last week I ran 16 and a half (minutes).
“It was something I really enjoy and I hope the students can see that if you put a bit of energy into something and you’re determined, it pays off and hopefully they can pick a sport or a pathway that they really like as well.”
