IEU members shine: NSW Premier’s Teacher Scholarships

IEU Assistant Secretary Lyn Caton with award recipient and rep Sharon Draper of Calrossy Anglican School East Tamworth.

Congratulations to IEU members Yang Sun, Sharon Draper and Dr Geoff Gates, who were among 17 educators across NSW to receive a prestigious Premier’s Teacher Scholarship. The award recipients were announced at a ceremony held at the NSW State Library on Thursday 1 August. Scholarships are awarded to school-based teachers in NSW to explore best practice in their chosen focus area.

Yang, a teacher from Marist College Eastwood, was awarded the 2025 NSW Premier’s Anika Foundation Youth Depression Awareness Scholarship. Yang’s scholarship will enable her to explore ‘research-based strategies that every educator should teach’ as she seeks to ensure educators are well equipped with the professional knowledge and skills to provide holistic support to adolescents rather than predominantly focusing on an academic curriculum.

NSW Premier Chris Minns, teacher and IEU member Yang Sun and NSW Deputy Premier and Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Car.

Sharon, a teacher from Calrossy Anglican School in Tamworth was awarded the 2025 Premier’s Reserve Bank of Australia Economics Scholarship. Sharon will use her scholarship to explore The right market conditions: The survival of economics in regional and rural high schools.

Geoff, Director of Learning and Teaching at The Hills Grammar in Kenthurst, was awarded the Premier’s Creativity across the Curriculum Scholarship. This scholarship is for recipients to explore the multi-faceted concepts of creativity and innovation that can be applied to several fields in education through a variety of approaches and conceptualisations.