Completing a degree while working full time can be challenging, but for a Gosford mother of six, achieving Distinctions and High Distinctions in every subject was just a matter of hard work. Ms Joanne Fitzgibbon works at Lakes Grammar School in Warnervale on the NSW Central Coast as a Learning Support Teacher for kindergarten to Year 4 while raising her six children, aged six to sixteen, with husband Darren. “As well as a teacher and a mother, she has been a student at Charles Sturt University’s School of Teacher Education at Bathurst completing a Masters of Education degree,” explains Associate Dean of the Faculty of Education Professor Jo-Anne Reid. “Her demonstration of outstanding academic performance saw her presented with the Dean’s Merit List Award,” Her dedication to her profession also saw her co-presenting at the Australian Association of Special Education conference in Darwin earlier this month, which this year focused on school and classroom leadership.