Lucy’s Star is on the Rise The Educator magazine has named English Teacher, Ms Lucy Loxton, as one of their 2022 Rising Stars of the Year for her improvements to the General English course and to the boarding induction programme ‘About Being Connected@PLC’ (ABC@PLC). More than 100 nominations are received per year for this coveted award, with only a handful named as winners. Those chosen as Rising Stars are judged on how they, as individuals, have made meaningful and tangible differences to teaching and learning outcomes in their schools. Ms Loxton was nominated by Head of Senior School, Ms Rebecca Watts for the prestigious award. “Ms Loxton is an integral member of PLC who has engaged with all curriculum areas to ensure boarders and General pathway students are supported and connected throughout the School,” Ms Watts said.
As co-ordinator of the ABC@PLC programme for new boarders, Ms Loxton changed existing lesson plans to give the students a head start for Year 7, identifying their strengths and any weaknesses and working on these to prepare the students for their upcoming courses. She enhanced the ‘getting to know you’ aspect of the existing programme by including Year 12 leaders to run activities and housed it within the Boarding House to enable new boarders to become familiar with their new home away from home and accessible technology so students could keep in touch with their new boarding mates. “Over the course of this programme, we have seen the students’ confidence and interactions with one another positively grow beyond expectations. They come to school having already built connections with their peers and a staff member, and fewer concerns about leaving home,” said Ms Loxton.
Improvements to the General English course were also made, resulting in increased student engagement with numbers growing from one student in 2019 to two classes in 2022, and growing confidence within the students’ academic abilities. Ms Loxton made the General English units more relevant to the students by focussing on things they would find interesting and popular culture, reinventing the course to be more engaging, accessible and challenging. Students enjoy the subject matter such as researching websites to plan travel and analysing podcasts. Ms Loxton’s passion to engage and build confidence through innovation and relevance has resulted in a well-deserved national accolade, at the beginning of what is looking to be a bright career for this young educator at PLC.
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