Image courtesy of St Raphael’s School Parkside.
The accolades keep on rolling for Emma Fowler, principal of St Raphael’s School in Parkside, who has recently been recognised on The Educator’s Hot List 2025, after also being a recipient of the distinguished Leader of the Year and Innovative Educator of the Year at the 2025 EdTechSA and Educators SA World Teachers’ Day awards earlier this year.
Fowler was chosen from a competitive nationwide field of nominees for the prestigious 11th annual Education Hot List, due to her strengths as an educator in the K-12 domain and the impressive impact she has had on the school system over the past 12 months.
These recent awards, particularly the Leader of the Year and Innovative Educator of the Year, prove an incredibly proud moment for St Raphael’s school and community, as Fowler’s work stood out among more than 70 outstanding educators honoured across South Australia.
Since becoming principal of the Catholic primary school, Fowler has created an environment that fosters creativity and connection, and centres on technology and wellbeing, and empathetic leadership.
Fowler highlights three key principles that she believes mark the foundation for effective school leadership in 2025: meaningful human connection rooted in empathy; the belief that people benefit more from autonomy and purpose, rather than using traditional motivational strategies; and a focus on positive mental health and wellbeing for the entire school community.
On nurturing this positive guidance, Fowler expresses the importance of seeing strength and value in every individual. “At St Raphael’s, that means being present, seeing the unique strengths in every person, and creating the conditions for those strengths to flourish, so individuals and the community as a whole can truly thrive,” says Fowler.
“The most powerful learning still happens through relationships,” Fowler adds, as the principal and staff at St Raphael’s are known for setting their focus on the students as individuals, especially in this technology-driven world. In addition to Fowler’s achievements, the school has also celebrated a variety of academic milestones this year. St Raphael’s has launched the Maths Movement program, won two awards associated with their Reading Revolution initiative, and also been name a 2025 Five-Star Employer of Choice.
With so many notable accomplishments for St Raphael’s in 2025, the upcoming school year is looking even more promising.
For more information on St Raphael’s School Parkside, click here.
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