Sam Dilly, from Yeronga State High School, has a passion for helping refugees by teaching them English as a Second Language.  This passion has led to students at Yeronga improving their Mean Scale Score at a higher rate than the State and National rate.

As Yeronga State High School’s English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EALD) Team Leader and Curriculum Coach since 2016, Sam has led the whole-school implementation of EALD curriculum and research-based pedagogical practice and refugee education. 
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His teaching has resulted in an increase in As and Bs in achievement data and 100 per cent QCE attainment in 2016-2017.

Sam’s work with organisations such as the Refugee and Immigration Legal Service led to the Year 9 citizenship program. 

Sam has utilised recent national research to lead a whole- school approach to teaching EALD and to teaching refugee-background students. This involved facilitating whole-school practices in Bandscaling, EALD pedagogy and developing quality EALD programs which ensured these students transition to mainstream classes.  

The transitioning to mainstream classes has been a vitally important outcome of Sam’s leadership and has also created a shift in the mindset of teachers to ensure inclusive practices across the school; this has resulted in all teachers at Yeronga now seeing themselves as teachers of EALD students.

Yeronga State High School is a lighthouse school for EALD pedagogy, which Sam has shared with a number of schools, including Dakabin State High School, Indooroopilly State High School, Mabel Park State High School, Milpera State High School and Nambour State High School.

Sam’s leadership within Yeronga State High School adopted a three-pronged approach. The first prong is leading the EALD Bandscaling initiative across the school to identify language learning needs of students. This entails developing a shared understanding of language learning and strategies to identify the levels of language acquisition across the four macro-skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing.

The second prong is overseeing the curriculum development of EALD subjects and the third is working collaboratively with teachers to review and revise unit plans and assessment instruments across all curriculum areas to ensure they are differentiated to meet the needs of diverse EALD learners.

Sam plays a leading role in the biennial Multicultural Day Festivals, including creating promotional material, leading workshops and organising performances. 
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Congratulations Sam on your QCT Excellent Leadership in Teaching and Learning Award nomination.