Teaching excellence rewarded

Rector Christine Leighton congratulates Hamish Faulls on his receipt of the Marily Scanlon Award for Teaching Excellence.

The 2015 recipient of the Marily Scanlon Award for Teaching Excellence is well known for his engaging classroom teaching and talent for storytelling. As Teacher in Charge of History and Classics, Hamish Faulls uses these skills to great effect, to bring the past alive and give students an understanding of how important historical events have shaped the present. Hamish has taught at St Andrew’s for 17 years and is honoured to receive the generous award, which was donated six years ago by Jay, Maris and Francis Scanlon in memory of their wife and mother Marily. Each year the award recognises a teacher for their contribution to teacher excellence and to the wider life of the College. “I enjoyed teaching both Maris and Francis Scanlon so the award has extra special significance,” says Hamish. He has spent his entire teaching career at St Andrew’s. After completing a History degree in the early 1990s, the former Canterbury representative tennis player moved to Germany where he played club tennis for three years. “A friend gave me a Teachers’ College application and said ‘stop mucking around, you’re a teacher’. So I came home, did my training, got a job at St Andrew’s in 1998 straight out of Teachers’ College and never looked back.” In 2002 Hamish became teacher in charge of Classics, and in 2014 became teacher in charge of History. He says his strength in the classroom is encouraging and supporting students across all levels to achieve. “I’m equally focused on helping a student move from a Not Achieved to an Achieved, as from a Merit to an Excellence. It’s about supporting every student to reach their full potential.” Hamish’s easy-going manner and humour, combined with strong organisational skills have made him popular with students. “My philosophy is if students enjoy coming into my class, hopefully they’ll learn more.” Around 15 years ago his Year 13 students and tutor group started leaving a permanent reminder of their time with Hamish by signing their name, year and class on his classroom walls. The tradition has survived with students continuing to leave their mark.

Alongside his teaching career Hamish and his wife Leanne took on the role of House Parents at the boarding house for six years from 2006 to 2012, after which Hamish focused back on full-time teaching, and Leanne became a NZQA administrator at the College. He is also the key figure behind the outstanding success of St Andrew’s tennis teams, particularly the mixed tennis team, which for the last six years out of 11 have been New Zealand champions. He has coached tennis at St Andrew’s since 1999, and can often be found out on the courts in the early morning working with some of the College’s top young players. “I’m proud of the results we have achieved and the huge amount of time and effort the kids put into their training.” As the voice of the athletic sports and Highland Games, Hamish is also well known for his ever-so-slightly biased commentary in favour of Rutherford House, but says the reason for that is two-fold. “I definitely want to encourage Rutherford, but if the students from the other Houses are giving me a bit of stick it means they’re paying attention to House spirit, and will do their best to compete.” Another of Hamish’s achievements was leading the introduction of the Write That Essay programme to St Andrew’s, which assists all Year 9 and Year 10 students to improve their writing skills. He has not decided how he will use the Marily Scanlon Award prize money, but expects it to go towards travel, perhaps associated with a trip to Greece and Italy being planned by his department. “I’m extremely grateful for the prize, and for the opportunity to teach subjects that I have a real passion for and a lifelong interest in.”