Gippsland’s Best Language Teachers Honoured

Dr Margaret Batten, A.M. presenting Lynnette Dent with her citation
Dr. Margaret Plunkett and Award recipients

Eight of Gippsland's top language leachers were honoured at a ceremony on Thursday 3rd March.


Over 60 people including educators from Melbourne gathered at the Waratah Restaurant at Gippstafe Morwell to celebrate their achievements.


The Gippsland Group of the Australian College of Educators presented them with the 2011 Gippsland Education Service Awards for their outstanding contribution to the learning of languages other than English.


A feature of the evening was the presentation to Lynnette Dent from the KODE Campus, Morwell for her development of a language course for the local Gunnai Kurnai people.  This means that the language has been resurrected and its future safeguarded.


Other languages covered were Indonesian, Japanese, German.


The 2011 Gippsland Education Service Awards went to:



  •  Irene Beasley-Leongatha Primary School

  • Jan Chalmer-Gippsland Grammar School

  • Dianne Collins-Sale Primary School

  • Dee Crosby-Trafalgar High School

  • Jo Keating-Trafalgar High School

  • Lynette Dent-KODE School

  • Birgit Eriksson-Marist Sion College

  • Donna Stemberger-Sale College

Prof. Jo Lo Bianco, Chair of Language and Literacy Education at Melbourne University presented the awards and congratulated the teachers on their achievements. He noted how they were making a profound impact on the thinking and cultural experience of their students by 'naturalising' their speech and thinking using another language.  This would give them further advantage in their educational development.  He even noted that learning another language was a good way of fighting Altzeimer's while giving older people insight into the global village we live in. That went down well with the audience!


Dr. Margaret Plunkett, President of the Gippsland Group of ACE noted that the Gippsland Education Service Awards were one of our ways of drawing public attention to the high quality of education happening in Gippsland.