John Fleming, Deputy principal - director of the Haileybury Institute, Haileybury College

John Fleming’s nominating colleague speaks of him in the highest possible terms. “I’ve never met a more uplifting and inspiring leader of education in my life,” he tells The Educator. “I can honestly say that anything worth knowing about teaching, I have learned from him.”

Fleming has been employed at Haileybury College in Victoria since 2006, and it’s said he’s taken its junior school to great heights, strengthening staff morale and building a fantastic school culture and community. Within three years, he became deputy principal and, today, he travels around Australia working with schools to drive improvement, sharing his Fleming Effective Teaching Model. Working with principals and teachers, he imparts his knowledge through coaching, modelling and presenting at whole-school meetings. Educators from across the country have travelled to seminars in Melbourne specifically to hear what Fleming has to say and to take the knowledge back to their own school communities.