Frances Gentle Award for Innovations in Professional Learning (Early Career and Established Career)

Nominations have now closed. Thank you for your interest! The winner of the inaugural Frances Gentle Award will be announced during the SPEVI 2025 Conference.

The first award will be handed The Frances Gentle Award for Innovations in Professional Learning will recognise SPEVI's belief that children with vision impairment (VI) have the right to be taught and supported by qualified teachers who possess the disability-specific knowledge and skills to enable each child to reach their optimum potential. One of SPEVI’s aims is to encourage the highest standards in education for students with vision impairment by promoting research and professional training for general and specialist teachers. This aim is reflected in Standard 6, “Engage in professional learning”, of the AITSL Professional Standards for Teachers and the SPEVI Professional Standards Elaborations for Specialist Teachers (Vision Impairment).

The Award

The Award consists of a bursary and an award certificate. SPEVI Inc. will offer the award biennially, commencing in 2025.
There are two award categories: (1) Early Career and (2) Established Career Award.

Early Career: Awarded to a SPEVI Inc member who has achieved a high standard in their post-graduate studies in VI education or has embarked on their career as a Specialist Teacher (VI). The Early Career award will be for someone who has completed their formal VI studies in the past five years.

Established Career: Awarded to a SPEVI Inc member who is employed as a Specialist Teacher (VI). The award will recognise inspirational teaching and/or innovative approaches in a variety of areas, for example STEM, technology, and braille music.

Both Award recipients will each receive a bursary of $250.00 to support their continued professional development in vision education.

The nomination process

If you would like to nominate a colleague for either the Early Career or Established Career category of the award, please complete the nomination form. The nomination process includes submission of letters of support from colleagues.

The SPEVI Committee of Management will establish the selection panel each year. Those SPEVI members being considered for the award in that year will not be included on the panel.

Nominations for the 2025 Award are closed now.

Award recipients

Award recipients will receive recognition on the SPEVI website and on social media channels.

Award recipients are required to make themselves available in-person or online for the inaugural award presentation during the SPEVI 2025 Conference in January 2025.

Award recipients will submit a report to the SPEVI Committee of Management describing the ways the award funding was used. These reports may be published on the SPEVI website or considered for publication in the JSPEVI journal.

For more information, please email the SPEVI Secretary at spevisecretary@gmail.com.