Bendigo's Leash Giles has always been one to march to the beat of her own drum.
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And in doing that during her teaching career has been able to see that not all students learn the same way.
Because of this, she has worked with her fellow staff at Xavier Catholic College Wurrumiyanga to develop a reading program for children on the Tiwi Islands.
It was that Systematic Synthetic Phonics Reading program that not only made a difference to the students, but earned her a national accolade.
Her love for teaching began from an early age, Ms Giles said.
"I think it comes from a love of helping people," she said.
"For as long as I can remember I've always wanted to lend a helping had when I see someone who needs it.
"And travelling when I had finished high school really cemented that for me too."
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When other teens were headed to schoolies after VCE, Ms Giles travelled to the Philippines with Catholic Education Office Sandhurst to immerse herself in local schools.
The following year, she returned to the Alternative Schoolies program as a youth leader, again expecting to head to the impoverished south-east Asian country.
"A typhoon hit just before we needed to head off, so there were alternative arrangements made for the group to go to central Australia instead," she said.
"I thought I wanted to travel to Africa to teach, but after that time I realised I could have that kind of experience closer to home, so I ended up in Alice Springs. I was so glad I'd done it."
After completing her education and university degree in Bendigo and a teaching stint at Maiden Gully Primary, Ms Giles relocated to the Tiwi Islands where she was tasked with teaching class of grade three and four students.
"Within the first five minutes of the first day there was a fight in the classroom, there was language barriers. It was definitely quite a culture shock," she said.
"The first day was sensory overload. I thought, I've just got to get through this, get home, figure it out, and get back here tomorrow.
"After a while I grew to love it and I wouldn't have had it any other way. It's the kids. They are so vibrant and so unique. I love being with them every day, they're a delight."
After a year at the primary school, Ms Giles moved across to Xavier Catholic College.
The secondary school was seeking primary-trained teachers to help lift their students' academic abilities.
"It was nice to come in with a skill set that was really helpful to those kids and to then see them grow," she said.
One of the biggest tasks was to improve the students' reading skills, made challenging for the fact there were no books the teens could relate to.
"All the fiction was about mainstream Australian kids, or kids from other countries, doing mainstream things, and it was really difficult for our kids to relate to," Ms Giles said.
After the all-clear from her principal, she spent the summer holiday developing a Tiwi-focussed reading program, writing and creating decodable readers about and set in the Tiwi Islands, which aligned with the science of reading and oral language.
"It hasn't been smooth or perfect," she said.
"And I have to give kudos to the principal and the school community for getting on board. But the students have progressed massively.
"It's the first time we've got a group of kids who are quite confident readers, and the question now is, where do we go with it from here?"
Ms Giles has received the best present she could as for this Christmas with a National Excellence in Teaching Award for her remarkable effort and results.
"I can't believe it's happened," she said, after being nominated by her principal and Catholic Education NT, then undergoing questionnaires and an interview to be given the prestigious award.
"You don't do this to be recognised, you do it for the kids and after the results we've seen after all the hard work is rewarding enough."
She hopes her story - and her stories - inspire other schools in unique cultural regions.
"One good thing would be for other communities to hear this story and then make their own contextual resources," Ms Giles said.
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