Courtenay Peters
St Lucy's School, NSW
Dharug and Guringai
Early Career Teacher
St Lucy’s School in Wahroonga, Sydney provides a holistic education for over 200 students with disabilities, with a focus on community, courage and joy. Courtenay Peters, a teacher and facilitator of teaching and learning, has been instrumental in introducing programs to help children chart and develop their abilities, especially in writing.
One of these programs is a writing scale. Courtenay implemented Jane Farrell’s Developmental Writing Scale, a 14-point system that tracks progress from emergent to conventional writing. This method led to 100% of her 2022 students and 85% of her 2023 students advancing at least one level, improving their writing skills across all subjects and incorporating multimodal communication.
Courtenay’s collaborative approach is central to her role, and she has led both the school-wide adoption of the Writing Scale and provided ongoing support and practical advice to her colleagues. Her leadership extends to sharing innovative strategies and best practice with all the teachers at St Lucy’s. She is also committed to strengthening parent and carer involvement in her students’ learning by regularly charting and sharing each child’s activities and progress, which has led to an increase in family and student engagement. One of Courtenay’s many interests is technology, and she strives to incorporate new technologies in the school’s Universal Design for Learning framework.
Courtenay’s passion for education and professional development led her to progress from a teacher’s aide position to a teacher. Her new professional goals include attending more specialised development programs, to further develop her skills and knowledge and impact more children.