Teacher’s Aide of the Year Nomination
小蓝视频 and Alesco Senior College are proud to announce that Student Learning and Support Officer Belinda Wells has been nominated for Teacher鈥檚 Aide of the Year.
Belinda, who now works at our new Abermain Campus, started with Alesco Cessnock in 2016 as a Student Welfare Officer. Before this, she worked with Father O鈥橰iley鈥檚 Youth off the Streets as a youth worker for 2 years.
Belinda鈥檚 passion in life is to take each challenge head-on and offer support to others. She is a passionate and dedicated worker who thoroughly enjoys coming to work every day. She finds working with young people very rewarding especially when you see them make any improvements over time. Belinda enjoys the smaller class sizes at Alesco as she gets to work closely with the students and observe them working hard and building on their skills and knowledge. She loves watching them thrive with the ultimate goal of completing their schooling. Belinda works intensively with identified student鈥檚 one on one or in a small group setting to enhance their educational needs.
Belinda teaches the reading program which has been highly successful for students who have taken part. In 2018, Belinda created resources and developed a reading program for a number of students. This program had successful results for all students who participated. One student who took part started with a reading age of 8 years old. When they completed the program their result improved to a reading age of 12.5 years. This student has now graduated from school and recently visited the campus and told Belinda that they continue to read every day. Belinda also teaches small groups of Year 9, Year 10 and Senior students in the Intensive Learning Support Program which focuses on numeracy and literacy.
Belinda chose to work with Alesco because she can advocate for, and support, at risk youth. When she was completing high school herself, she was facing her own struggles and adversities. She received an abundance of support from one teacher in particular, as well as receiving not one, but two educational scholarships through the Hunter Mentor Collaborative. With this support, she was able to finish her Year 12 studies. It was then she knew she wanted to help and support young people as a career.
In 2020 at the Atwea Staff Reward and Recognition ceremony she received two awards, Recognition for Integrity and Recognition for Innovation. In 2018 she made it as a finalist for the Advocate for Children and Young People Youth Advisory Council, and in 2016 was Youth Sector Youth Worker of the Year and also nominated for Young Person of the Year.
Belinda is highly satisfied with her teaching experience at Alesco, when she is not teaching her programs she is in the classroom supporting our students to ensure their learning needs are met. 小蓝视频 and Alesco Senior College would like to congratulate Belinda on her nomination and wish her all the best.
