NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said the scholarships provided recipients with $10,000 to $15,000 in funds for a five-week study tour.
“This is an amazing opportunity that can really transform a teacher’s professional career by broadening their knowledge and expanding their horizons,” he said.
A public school teacher for 16 years who has worked in the UK and the USA, Ross has been a PDHPE teacher at Picnic Point for the last six years and was was nationally certified in 2019 as a Highly Accomplished teacher (HALT), with only 1,000 teachers holding this accreditation across the whole of Australia.
He was also awarded the 2022 Secondary PDHPE Teacher of the Year from ACHPER NSW (Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation).
Thrilled to receive the scholarship, he says the $15,000 scholarship will be used to research the relationship between ‘play’ and the positive wellbeing of school aged students.
“I will undertake the study tour in March, travelling to all corners of Australia,” he said.
“Being physically active and regularly playing has been proven to positively impact a student’s wellbeing.
“I will explore why students start becoming less active as they transition through the school years and will examine if technology and lack of access inhibits a student’s level of play; it’s very exciting.”
