From implementing strong foundational skills in Prep, to whole school programs exploring ways to make music education enjoyable and accessible – these teachers are certainly making an impact in their schools.
On 2 April 2025 Brisbane Catholic Education celebrated 17 newly certified Highly Accomplished and Lead Teachers (HALT), taking the number of certified teachers across BCE to 32.
Highly Accomplished and Lead Teachers are educators who have a powerful and positive impact on their students in their classroom. The certification process is a rigorous national approach to recognising highly skilled classroom teachers.
BCE Senior advisor – Talent Development Melody White, who is also one of our newest certified teachers, said she was proud of the impact she had made while teaching Music, Business, Legal Studies and Religion at Siena Catholic College Sippy Downs.
“The Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher certification provided an excellent opportunity to demonstrate the informal contributions I make to my colleagues on a daily basis," Melody said.
“These contributions have not only enhanced my own teaching practices but have also led to improved outcomes for students throughout the school."
Melody is looking forward to mentoring the next cohort of HALTs through their certification in 2025.
As part of BCE's strategic focus to build a high-performance workforce, there has been a significant increase in the number of teachers applying for HALT certification – with 75 teachers now working towards the certification.
Teachers who aspire to achieve HALT status compile detailed portfolios showcasing their teaching practices, evidence of student impact and professional growth.
BCE Head of School Performance, Brett Horton said these teachers not only inspire their colleagues by improving their practice, but initiate programs that widely impact their school and community.
“We thank our newly certified teachers for the dedication they have shown to their students, colleagues, families and the community," Brett said.
“Together with the ongoing support of our Principals, they are inspiring an education to believe in at Brisbane Catholic Education and I know that we will continue to grow this incredible network of teachers in our schools."
At the celebration, these teachers were celebrated, and BCE Senior Leaders shared each of the stories of impact for the HALTs in their cluster.
Read these stories below.
Camille Bertini, Prep teacher – St Thomas' School Camp Hill
Camille is deeply passionate about early year's literacy, ensuring every child develops strong foundational skills to become confident and capable readers. Camille's portfolio focused on research-informed teaching practices, professional learning, and resource development to enhance early literacy instruction. She has built strong professional partnerships that foster collaboration and meaningful discussions while supporting student engagement, goal setting, and positive behaviour through the implementation of PBL strategies. Camille's impact is reflected in the rigorous professional dialogue that she shares with colleagues, the appreciative feedback from parents regarding her purposeful communication, and, most importantly, the growth and confidence of her students as they develop a love for learning.
Sarah Campbell, Technologies Specialist teacher - All Saints Primary School Albany Creek
Sarah is passionate about engaging students through innovative teaching and preparing them for the future. She has supported teachers in implementing the Technologies Curriculum Version 9 and the Digital Literacy General Capability, creating resources, developing a Digital Pedagogy Policy, and guiding staff in effective digital integration. Her work has led to improved student outcomes, greater teacher confidence, and a school-wide culture of innovation in digital literacy. Sarah's leadership has helped shape a future-focused learning environment where both students and teachers thrive.
Pauline Daniell, Teacher - Mary MacKillop College Nundah
Pauline is a highly accomplished teacher passionate about creating an inclusive and inspiring learning environment, she has made significant contributions through her work in Religion and Ethics, and Food and Design Technology unit reviews. Her dedication extends to mentoring early career teachers, incorporating student feedback for continuous improvement, and sharing innovative strategies at 'teach meets' to elevate the teaching community.
Sean Freeburn, Mathematics teacher - Carmel College Thornlands
To Sean, Mathematics is a subject like no other and is enjoyable in a way no other subject is. For a lot of teenagers, mathematics is not their favourite subject, and Sean really has to 'sell it' to them by showing them how passionate he is. He channels this passion when supporting his colleagues to create effective teaching and learning programs so that students across the school are engaged in the subject.
Claire McGahan, Teacher - St Finbarr's School Ashgrove
Claire teaches Year 3 and has a passion for mentoring early career teachers through classroom observations, providing constructive feedback and modelling effective teaching strategies. Claire also takes pride in the way she encourages her students to become assessment capable learners through the delivery of her One-to-One iPad program, where she uses technology and data-driven approaches, to enhance academic outcomes. In 2025, Claire is making an impact by leading her school's First Nations 'Belonging Team' and is involved with the St Finbarr's partnership project with Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School in Waiben, Thursday Island and St Thomas More College Sunnybank.
Jason Nash, Film Drama and English teacher - St Peter Claver College Riverview
Jason is passionate about creativity in the classroom and creating environments that help students become empowered and engaged arts practitioners. Jason is a Union delegate, program leader, early career mentor, and avid member of multiple professional organisations. His impact has been to see students and colleagues succeed at high levels of both competition, and self-development.
Helen O'Rourke, Humanities Head of Department - Unity College Caloundra West
Helen is passionate about creating engaging and challenging lessons for her students. In her role she worked to embed Indigenous perspectives across 7-10 curriculum areas. Within humanities, she has focused on processes for source interrogation and literacy. Helen supports early career teachers by developing whole school programs that foster exemplary practice such as learning walks, mentoring and modelling of pedagogy in practice.
Melanie Peters, Arts teacher - Stella Maris Catholic Primary School Maroochydore.
Melanie is passionate about supporting all students to engage in their learning and feel success and enthusiasm. Key themes of her portfolio include working collaboratively across specialist areas to enable project-based and self-driven learning as well as facilitating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander learning experiences within the school, neighbouring schools and the wider community. She has created a collaborative culture among staff, students and the community to provide experiences and relationships that provide a sense of belonging for all.
Courtney Redman, Teacher - Marymount College Burleigh Waters
Courtney is passionate about students engaging in classrooms and catering for all abilities, low- extension. Her goal is to support all students to feel proud of their individual achievements. Very interested in psychology in the classroom, Courtney aims to pursue this further in the future. She is also passionate about mentoring and supporting early career teachers to develop and refine skills and knowledge. Themes in her portfolio include mentoring, First Nations inclusion, programming and staff presentations.
Kate Reynolds, English teacher and Assistant Curriculum Leader for English - Marymount College Burleigh Waters
Kate is passionate about improving student literacy and analysis skills, creating interactive and engaging lessons and unit plans, and supporting early career teachers to find their feet and feel confident in the classroom. Fittingly, Kate's portfolio reflected these priorities and showed evidence of her impact on her colleagues and students across the school with improved summative results across multiple subjects, increased student engagement, improved processes and colleagues inspired to try new ways of teaching.
Matthew Ryan, Prep teacher - St Finbarr's School Ashgrove
Matthew has supported the school and wider community for the past 15 years. Matt has made an impact on his colleagues by taking on additional roles in learning support, ICT and school-wide behaviour management.
Sharon Sweeney, Lead Teacher - Mary MacKillop College Nundah
Sharon is passionate about helping students discover their curiosity and love for learning. The key themes of her portfolio were engagement, critical and creative thinking and improvement for students and teachers. Sharon's impact has been creating the Year 7 Integration Curriculum Program, improving engagement across Year 7 and 8 in Literacy, with a focus of PAT Literacy Testing results and leading the 4Cs transformative learning project.
Erin Wearing, Teacher - St Andrew's Catholic Primary School Ferny Grove
Erin's impact on her school has been driven by her passion for seeing young students grow and develop through meaningful connections and student-centred learning. Erin's portfolio highlighted her commitment to collaboration, particularly in working closely with colleagues and contributing to teams, such as PB4L to enhance student outcomes. Through her dedication, Erin has supported her students by adapting learning to their individual needs and supported colleagues by fostering a strong culture of teamwork and continuous improvement within the school community.
Melody White most recently a Music, Business, Legal Studies and Religion teacher -Siena Catholic College Sippy Downs.
Melody made an impact on her colleagues across multiple facility areas as well as the wider teaching community through mentorship and professional learning opportunities. Melody was selected as a Session Speaker at the Business Educators Association of Queensland's State Conference in 2024, delivering content on innovative practice in General Business. Melody has recently moved into the Brisbane Catholic Education Office as Senior Advisor – Talent Development and will be mentoring our next cohort of Highly Accomplished and Lead Teachers through certification.
Michael White, Music teacher - St Benedict's College Mango Hill
Michael is passionate about making music education enjoyable and accessible for all students at his school. As a foundation teacher at the College, Michael has been integral in the development of the music program. His portfolio captures his work supporting colleagues in the music department, mentoring teachers, delivering professional learning and sharing pedagogy. Michael's impact is seen through the vibrant and engaging classroom music program at St Benedict's College.