Mrs Poornima Mayurathan has won the2023 Outstanding Community Language Teacher of the Year Award for her commitment and dedication to language and cultural learning.
Presented by Community Languages WA in partnership with the Office of Multicultural Interests, the award celebrates excellence in teaching language and culture by community language teachers.
Mrs Poornima Mayurathan, who teaches at the South Tamil School of WA, was recognised for creating an engaging and inclusive learning environment for her students, using real-life scenarios and culturally appropriate programs to create a safe and fun environment for students to showcase their language ability.
Community language schools, which are mostly run by professional, highly dedicated volunteers, provide out-of-school-hours language teaching to students across the State.
The Cook Government supports 53 community language schools teaching 34 languages through the Office of Multicultural Interests Community Languages Program. Around 7,300 school-aged children attend these schools across the State.
The Community Languages Program also supports the Italian In-School Insertion program, which teaches Italian to more than 10,000 primary school students in 39 school across Western Australia.
Comments attributed to Citizenship and Multicultural Interests Minister Dr Tony Buti:
"Congratulations to Mrs Poornima Mayurathan for winning the 2023 Outstanding Community Language Teacher of the Year Award,which recognises her commitment and dedication to language and cultural learning.
"I want to take this opportunity to applaud all nominees for their efforts in supporting the community language schools, which enable children to strengthen connections with their cultural heritage and language.
"Our community language teachers play an invaluable role in language maintenance and acting as mentors to thousands of students.
"These amazing teachers are instilling a passion for language and culture in children and, by doing so, ensuring the linguistic diversity of our multicultural society well into the future".