Brett Lamb, East Doncaster Secondary College Media and English teacher, has been chosen as a finalist for Outstanding Secondary Teacher in the Victorian Education Excellence Awards.

The Victorian Education Excellence Awards highlight exemplary government school education and innovation in Victoria. The awards demonstrate what success in public education looks like and to be a finalist is a great achievement and should be celebrated. 

Brett strives to develop authentic relationships with his students and this is seen in his extensive passion for Media and teaching. Brett has had outstanding achievement for VCE Media, consistently achieving mean scores above 36 and above 28% of his students getting over a 40. This success has also been seen in students being selected regularly for Top Screen for Media, where Brett has also been a panel member in his role as State Reviewer for VCE Media. 

Brett also has a critical voice in promoting the College to the wider community. He directs and produces countless promotional video resources to share vital information on whole school policy and College events, as well as ensuring student voice and achievements are forefront in the message to our community. 

As a Leading Teacher Brett mentors many staff members, both formally and informally, across different domains and areas. His main focus is in leveraging technology to enhance the classroom experience. This extends from teachers at EDSC to many teachers across the country. During COVID 19 Brett was on the front foot and a week of announcing that schools would be going remotely he had developed a platform for staff and students, protocols, instructional documents and videos on ‘how to’, problem solved and led the IT department to facilitate and support staff through this program. He also ran professional development on this during this time.

He has created and manages the online Media resource www.lessonbucket.com. a continually evolving library of curriculum and resources for teachers across Australia – the first point for all teachers who teach media in secondary and tertiary settings.  This is accompanied with ongoing social media activity linked to a lesson bucket where emerging issues are discussed, resources, new ideas and reflections upon current Media developments locally and internationally are distributed. Due to Brett’s extensive knowledge and understanding he was also asked to be a co-author of the textbook Heinemann Media. He also maintains a YouTube channel which has received over 1.2 million views. 

Brett also has worked with VCAA where he presented at many seminars and workshops for teachers and students. He has presented regularly at ATOM state conferences since 2005. In 2017, he was invited to present at In the Frame, a media conference held by the National Association of Media Educators in Christchurch. He has presented papers at conferences across Australia, including the ATOM National Conference at Queensland University of Technology 2013 and the keynote presentation at ATOM WA Conference at Edith Cowan University, 2012. He regularly writes educational resources, such as assessment tasks and articles, for organisations like ATOM and Creative Content Australia.

His work with the broader educational community includes the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA), Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) and Creative Content Australia. He is currently a co-teacher at Monash University where he teaches pre-service media education teachers.

Brett leads the IT department within our school and is the connection between staff and the technical support staff. In this role he uses initiative and problem solving skills to take the lead on any challenges that could arise. In a sense he is ahead of the game, taking charge, communicating and listening to all staff’s views. Through his communication skills he is able to relay important information between all parties and provide honest and deliberate feedback and guidance. Through this role he is also focusing on making our school a more sustainable and environmentally friendly school.