BELLBIRD College’s, Michael West, has been named the Australian Secondary Principal of the Year.
Surrounded by his key staff members Michael’s name was announced as the winner at the Australian Education Awards’ gala ceremony in Sydney.
While Michael was honoured by the award, he said it was more importantly a significant recognition for Bellbird Park State Secondary College and the work of both the teachers and the students.
“While I have a trophy for the office it is much more than that and the reaction to the award on the school’s Facebook page revealed the pride in this school,” he said.
Bellbird Park opened in 2017 with just 212 students and 31 staff members. Today it is recognised as the fastest growing school in the region with 1800 students and 150 teachers.
Michael worked behind the scenes in 2016 preparing the college for its opening and has remained at the helm of the college ever since.
It is not the first time he has been recognised at the Australian Education Awards as he was also a finalist for the top principal award last year. The school now has five deputy principals and fittingly they were alongside Michael when he was named as the principal of the year.
It is not just Michael taking out trophies, the school’s business manager, Leanne Buller, was recently named the School Community business leader at a major education awards night on the Gold Coast.
In his submission for the award Michael said the best schools in Australia were not those with the highest NAPLAN or ATAR scores, the best were those that enabled their students to make the greatest progress in learning. The judges obviously agreed when they looked at the results of Bellbird Park and the progress the young college has made in just six years.
