New faces will welcome students when they return to class this week.

Port Douglas State School (PDSS) welcomes four new teachers to their team, each bringing their unique passion for teaching and a shared interest to keep the standards high.

New teachers, Amber Hodkinson, Lauren Arnold and Hannah Hobbs all from Queensland and Emma Whitburn from South Australia are already enjoying all the Port Douglas community has to offer.

With four years teaching already under her belt, Ms. Arnold will be teaching classes in years 3/4.

Ms. Arnold has a special claim to fame, PDSS’s very first enrolled student in 1988 was her partners older brother.

After spending a year teaching in London UK, followed by three years in Brisbane, Ms. Arnold enters her 5th year teaching here in Port Douglas. With a love of Maths and English, Ms. Arnold wants to make these subjects interesting whilst looking for fun ways to engage the students.

Ms. Hodkinson will be teaching year 1 students, bringing with her years of experience running an autism based resource business, which supported teachers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). As a child, Ms. Hodkinson remembers the positive impact her early years at school had on her childhood and aims to recreate this with her students.

Ms. Whitburn’s experience is in outdoor sports education. Moving up the coast from Mooloolaba to Port Douglas, Ms. Whitburn is looking forward to teaching her year 3/4 students. “I want to make learning fun and exciting and create opportunities to develop a love for learning” she said.

Year 5/6 students will have Ms. Hobbs from Townsville. Ms. Hobbs sister encouraged her to pursue a career in teaching and after her first year fell in love with it.

Ms. Hobbs focus is on the individual student, believing in their potential both academically and socially.

All four teachers were drawn to Port Douglas State School because of the high expectations of the school and its ongoing good outcomes. Equally, all four sang the praises of the supportive teaching community they have joined and the lovely parents they have met.

Newsport wishes all the students and teachers good luck with the new term. Back to school is Wednesday 27th January.