Remembrances from Students
Ben
Scott Hahn was my teacher in year 5 & 6. Throughout my time in his class, he was never anything but caring, enthusiastic about helping kids learn, and a magnetic educational force in the classroom that made it hard not to share his excitement about the classwork. He spoke kindly, and always acted with integrity in all aspects of school life. Scott made year 5 & 6 a really engaging and memorable experience, and to this day remains one of the best teachers I’ve had in my schooling life.
Emma
As a former student of Scott’s, I thoroughly enjoyed all of his classes, and have always respected and admired his approach to teaching in the classroom. He is a dedicated teacher, committed to the wellbeing and quality of education for his students.
Sophia
Scott taught me for approximately 3 years and we have been friends for 8 years. I feel that Scott has made such a positive impact on my life and I believe that he helped me to develop to be the person that I am today. Many years on I am now living in Brisbane and studying a Bachelor of Nursing at ACU. A feat which, I feel, would not be possible if it wasn’t for Scott’s kind words, hugs and support during what seemed like an impossible time. I consider him to be the best teacher I have ever encountered. I still count Scott as one of my most trusted friends and he is a caring and knowledgeable person. I am forever grateful for Scott’s continued support of me, in the form of book recommendations and debates. I feel that I owe Scott for teaching, encouraging and supporting me throughout the time of our friendship. Scott is a person that I look to for guidance. I truly believe in who Scott is as a human being.
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Maree-Rose
Scott proved to be an exceptional teacher in my experience, and give an amazing education to myself and my peers. A true gift for me. The best way I can describe my education experience with Scott, in these few words here, is “it would be a constant, almost daily lesson in life itself, and generating excitement for us in learning new things and develop new ways of our thinking, in such a way that I had never experienced before in my life”. Throughout my education with Scott, I learnt lessons about respect, self-motivation, dedication to learning, and to aspire to reach my full potential and do my very best always. I can say, with absolute honesty and openness that my passion for my educational journey, my deep sense of social justice and fairness in our families, community and broader society has blossomed and expanded under Scott’s teaching. I developed all these because I was able to freely express my opinions, ideas, and sense of passion in broad topics of learning and study in a safe learning environment during those crucial years of childhood that I was a student under Scott direct teaching. I have always credited Scott as being a “driving force” in not only my education, but also my life.
Julien
Dear Scott, You have been with me through my whole process and learning. It has been a great pleasure having you. You taught me lots of things: binary code, the table of elements, the water cycle, plant and animal classification, the food chain, evolution from cell to human, the formation of earth/great lesson, the timeline of life, formation of mountains and lots more very important stuff! Each lesson you taught me was fun and very highly educational. In every lesson you taught me and everybody else you put in your time, effort, enthusiasm and love of teaching. From Julien
Orion
As a young adult I often like to reflect upon those who have not only had an influence on my life, but those who have helped shape the person I am today. Scott Hahn was not just any teacher; he was a mentor to all. His gentle nature, kind words and uplifting spirit would always make me feel comfortable in his presence. Throughout the past decade of knowing Scott, I have never met anyone who has ever shared a negative experience with him. If anything, all who have cross paths with him have only voiced comments of upmost respect and gratitude. No matter what happens from this point forward, Scott will always hold a piece of my heart as if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be the person I am today.
Ameen
I met Scott when I was maybe 9 or 10 years old and have known him closely ever since. Scott has taught me and both of my sisters, also he has been a close friend of my families. When I first met him, I like everyone else in the school loved him straight away. Scott was always laughing and smiling, and helping us with our work in anyway possible. Over the first 2-3 years Scott became like an older brother/great friend to me. No matter what was happening in my family (divorced parents, dad moving to the uk) and various other things I would always go to Scott and he would tell me stories about his wondrous hikes, crazy rock climbing trips, and his adventures hitch hiking and camping all over the world. Scott was always so cultured, approachable, and passionate about his work compared to all the other teachers, and this is what allowed him to become such an important person in not only my life, but literally any if not all of his other students as well. Because of all these traits, Scott became more than just a teacher, again he was my friend. I’m sure if you reached out to all of his students who are now my age they will all say the exact same thing.
Eros
Scott Hahn is without a doubt the most influential educator I had throughout my primary and high school years. Simply put, I would not be the person I am today without his unwavering dedication and drive to make me, as well as my peers, the best people we could possibly be. His life lessons were folded perfectly through each syllabus dot point taught to us and to this day, now at 18 years old and having attended two different primary schools and three different high schools I can say with complete confidence that I have never met an educator more equipped to mould the minds of the next generation than Scott Hahn. He is simply a master at what he does and his natural talent tied with his pure and genuine nature sets him far apart from all the other educators I have been taught by, which is a number that totals over 25. He is the only educator who seemed to not let his private life interfere with his teachings, always treating each and every student with respect, dignity and without judgement. In my experience at many different schools and with many different teachers, this quality is extremely rare and is part of what makes Scott Hahn such a valuable asset to any learning establishment. Most of the principles, morals and values I live my life by were introduced and reinforced by Scott over the years of being taught by him, and I feel incredibly lucky to have been one of his students. Any child fortunate enough to receive his guidance is extremely lucky. He is truly one in a million.
Kind Words from Parents
Leanne Clarke
Scott was the type of teacher you can only hope that your child will have at least once in their life time – passionate, brilliant, creative, inspiring, attentive, warm, connected, and absolutely focused on teaching the whole child and nurturing a deep love of learning. I will be forever indebted to him for the role he played in ensuring that my daughter graduated from primary school with a confidence, determination, and passion for learning that has set her up for a wonderful start to her high school career.
Lenita Vangellis
Scott taught all three of my children for different periods of time and words cannot describe how blessed I feel that they had the opportunity to spend their days learning in his presence, with him as a guide. Scott is a man of impeccable integrity and an evolved consciousness which was evident from the first time we met. His love for teaching and inspiring children to be the best version of themselves is a quality often lacking in the world of educators, Scott however, never wavered in his enthusiasm and the respect he commanded was evident in the joy of the children he taught. He has always been extremely approachable and always made time to listen to another, children and parents alike. He played an integral role in teaching my children independence and taking responsibility for their choices and for that I am deeply grateful for. He always exhibited non judgement and compassion which I found to be so refreshing in a school environment. His tireless commitment to the school and the children, coupled with an authentic caring approach makes him an asset to any environment responsible for shaping the human of tomorrow. My children have so many wonderful memories that they still talk about to this day. The love and respect they have for Scott Hahn is testament to the teacher and man he is.
Kiera Perrott
Scott is an extraordinary and exceptional teacher. In my four decades as a student, teacher and parent I have not seen anyone else with the same combination of intelligence, warmth, passion and dedication as Scott. Scott lives and breathes education and last year put countless hours into preparing and delivering a wonderful program for the children in my daughter’s Cycle 3 class. Scott has an enthusiasm for learning and teaching that he shared beautifully with our children and their classmates in Cycle 3 and the Adolescent Program. His exceptional skills and interests are so broad that they encompass both the humanities and sciences, as well as nature, whether in the classroom, playground or on school excursions or camp. His knowledge is deep, as well as broad, as evidenced by his ability to inspire my ten-year-old to take her year-long-project on the origin of the universe into concepts usually covered at university level. Scott’s integrity and positivity are also traits which make him exceptional.
Gina Oliver
In recent months Scott has been spending time with my two children, Braelyn 12 and Connor 10. Initially he began helping them with particular school subjects, but his skill and ability to really connect with the children has led them to work on some special “projects”. I would unreservedly recommend Scott for his teaching ability. I find his manner and way of teaching both engaging and supportive, he has a very natural rapport with children that stems from genuine caring.
Ibtisam Saleh
Scott is that teacher we all dreamed of having growing up. But especially, that teacher we hope our children could have. I wasn’t lucky enough to have him around in my school years but I was blessed to have had him be a part of my children’s school life. It was such an honour! Scott is a compassionate, intelligent, professional, ethical, humane, and good ol’ fashion decent stand up guy. In a nutshell. You will be hard pressed finding a child taught by him or a parent that would tell you otherwise.
Julia Kosheleva
I know Mr Hahn to be a reliable and diligent person; a teacher who takes time to engage in an open dialogue with the parents; an exceptional, caring and inspirational teacher for his students; a well-respected mentor for the less experienced staff members; and a loved member of the wider school community. I have observed Mr Hahn be well prepared, professional, respectful toward the children, “tuned in” into their needs and individual characteristics.
Kim Redmond-Fewtrell
Scott is an extraordinary teacher with an incomparable intellect coupled with a seldom-found compassionate, respectful, enduringly patient and trusting nature.
(read Kim’s full, detailed account)
Lisa Baldwin
Scott has engaged my Son in the classroom in ways that have developed him academically, socially and emotionally. While Scott was Anthony’s teacher I have witnessed as Scott insightfully, sensitively and very patiently held space for my son to develop and reconnect with his intrinsic desire to learn. My Son began to come home from school and on weekends as we would explore the world together he would share with me all sorts of information and when I would ask him “where did you learn that?” he would reply time and time again “oh from a lesson that Scott taught”. As a parent I could not be more grateful for Scott’s presence as my Son’s teacher the impact for Anthony has been life changing.
Dan Tropp
Scott’s own broad and deep knowledge of many subjects is behind his personal style of teaching that is always making connections between different areas of knowledge. This really added to the sense of belonging in the class, with each student knowing their work was also related to their friends’ work—especially their Year Long Projects. Of course all of this doesn’t happen without preparation and planning, and this is something where Scott exceeded all my expectations as a parent. His commitment and enthusiasm to prepare new things for the students to learn seems to know no limits. Lastly, Scott’s warm and caring nature is obvious immediately. All his students knew he cared and set up a great foundation for the culture of the class.
Nga Duong
The first time I really got to know Scott was when the school organised a 2-day “Silent journey workshop” back in 2012. During the workshop, Scott presented the “Five Great Lessons”, from the beginning of the Universe and Earth, how life came to Earth, how Humans came to Earth and how writing and numbers began. Scott’s passion and ability to tell stories captivated everyone in the room, including me. I didn’t want the day to end. Scott became my son’s teacher in 2016 (Year 4-5). While in Scott’s class, my son Julien was thriving. Julien loved being taught by Scott, because Scott was using creative techniques to make anything engaging and interesting, ie science, Math, coding, etc., saying that no one could make it as ‘fun’ as Scott did. Scott is a talented teacher who is passionate about teaching children. Scott employs storytelling and many more creative techniques to effectively engage with the children, encourage their creative thinking and imagination. I would not hesitate to recommend Scott. Our children deserve to be taught by quality teachers. I have no doubt, Scott is one of them.
Peter Brakatselos
When I reflect back to my personal experience of Scott through my lens as a parent, I can only describe his teaching competence as exemplary, and his conduct without doubt of the highest caliber in respect of an adult overseeing primary [elementary] age children’s education and learning development and optimum outcomes. His commitment, dedication, skill, and engaging style towards extracting the very best from children under his responsibility was outstanding in my observation of our daughter’s development and progress and acquired love of learning under Scott.
Rick Davidson & Peggy Leung
Scott was the perfect teacher for our daughter. He was strong with his conviction but flexible to the needs of the community. To us, Scott has brought the exact combination of professionalism, warmth and curiosity that we’d always hoped for our children. His personal love of learning is contagious. Tori has raced off to school each morning eager to immerse herself in the learning and then returned at the end of the day full of self-confidence and pride in her progress. We have observed Scott to be exceptionally dedicated to his classroom. He is consistently going above-and-beyond the call of duty to bring world-class education to every aspect of the children’s holistic development. It is very clear that he truly cares that every child has exactly what they need to develop to their full potential. We can see that teaching is more than a job to Scott, it is his mission and purpose in life. Scott has also been a friend to the parents; making himself exceptionally available to discuss the ongoing concerns that parents have for their children. He listens carefully, he gets it, and he takes action to support our concerns – a rare combination in today’s day and age. We have absolute trust in Scott as a teacher and recommend him wholeheartedly. We can only hope that Tori’s future teachers bring a fraction of the value she has received from having Scott’s be part of her journey.
Sarah Bonora
When Scott was my daughter’s teacher she enjoyed school, especially Scott’s lessons, because he would bring them to life and engage her mind to know more. He is accommodating and never saw my child as difficult or challenging as he saw the child as the child, different in their own way and able to learn and grow in their own way. An attribute not many of us have. He is kind, gentle and patient, he is gifted with guiding children in a safe and loving way.
Oksana Eremina
I have known Scott for over 3 years and my son Gaolin was a student in Scott’s classroom. During this time I found Scott to be very professional, kind and a fantastic teacher and who is well liked and respected by all. Scott’s laid back nature and kind heart has helped so many shy children like my son to gain confidence and feel comfortable in his presence. Scott is friendly and a natural with children. He is everything you want in the teacher – he cares about his students and creates a space of kindness and support.
Lou Scrivener
Last year we enrolled Reed in the Festival of Workshops at Waverly College and he was lucky enough to meet Scott. The second day we arrived at Waverly, Scott came out of his classroom to find Reed in the queue for his next session and said glad I found you, come and see the periodic table the printer wouldn’t let me print out yesterday. He had these huge prints out of the differences between Medelev’s understanding from initial cognition to today’s periodic table. Scott talked Reed through the importance of understanding that you can’t understand everything all at once, and you’re not going to get it right the first time, but importantly, showed him evidence of the importance of a tenacious approach and learning from mistakes, experiments and triumphs. It’s a rare mix of skills that allows someone to encourage the ability to understand abstract concepts, but still deal with the temperament, behaviours and limitations of a 10 year old child.
Testimonials from Others
Cameron Richmond, Teacher
Scott is that rare breed of human who is able to build trust with children which runs deep and manage it responsibly with the sole purpose of unlocking the child’s potential to realise their natural destiny through educational guidance, pastoral care and emotional support.
Simone Denmeade, Teacher
I have personally worked with Scott for a period of 8 years and have always found him to be a highly ethical educator, professional in his relationship with students and concerned with their safety and wellbeing. Equally he has always worked in partnership with the parents and carers of his students and has maintained positive and professional relationships with them all. Scott has always been, and continues to be, a highly popular staff member valued by staff, families and students alike. He is a gifted educator, truly committed to his students overall wellbeing and learning.
Liz Piazza, Teacher
Scott has exhibited a huge amount of respect for the students, staff and pedagogy. He constantly wants to know more, why and what he can do; an avid learner showing a natural ability for communicating, relating to and guiding the students. Scott has a strong sense of helping the children to help themselves. He has a unique aptitude towards teaching.
Richard Wallace, Principal
Scott genuinely wants to be around his students. He gave up all his lunch breaks so that they could spend more time in nature than the usual play roster allowed. It would be false though to create the impression that Scott is just the ‘fun’ teacher. Scott designed individual curriculum that allowed every student to not just develop confidence but find their social worth. His extension of gifted students is deep and meaningful, his personal approach to learning enthuses his students and has facilitated a wonderful learning culture that I hope can continue after his departure.
Hani Ghali, Head of Montessori Australia
Scott has continually demonstrated his positive rapport with students and parents. His ability and skills in dealing with student wellbeing continually provided positive results that have established his ability as a valued Montessori teacher. I found him to be always highly motivated, able to deal with challenging and stressful situations in a positive manner and at all times he demonstrated his commitment to achieving the best possible outcome for the individual needs of each of his students. Out of his love for what he treasures the most, Scott contributed to the school community well and above his call of duty. Over the years Scott continually spent many very long hours well into the night at school preparing the teaching environment for his students. His creative and inspirational outlook on life allowed him to create teaching resources and material that captured the imagination of all his students which in turn inspired their creativity and free thinking approach.
Tamela Brosten, Principal
I have known Scott for over twenty five years and feel that he is one of the most honest and dedicated people I know. Scott is a great communicator and has a true passion for lighting the love of learning within each child. I know that Scott is a true educator with the ability to see where the student is within their learning and how to help them achieve their individual goals. Scott has worked with children in many different situations and the children automatically gravitate towards him.
Kay Urquhart, Teacher
Scott instantly established a wonderful rapport with the children and soon became the most popular adult in the school. He has a vibrant and outgoing personality that excites the children and motivates them to explore their environment and develop their powers of abstraction and imagination. His love of life and learning not only motivates the children but also has the ability to inspire the other teachers within the school. Scott possesses a wealth of worldly knowledge and has a clear understanding of the developmental needs of children
Chris Hahn, Scott’s Father
Scott has always had a love of learning. As a child, he was eager to explore algebra, reading, computer programming, music, outdoor discovery, science projects, and other subjects, often before the topics were introduced at school. I was not surprised when he decided to turn his elite-university degree in physics into a platform for inspiring curiosity and a love of learning in children. I have seen him in action in his nine-to-twelve-year-old Montessori classroom. It was impressive. As his dad, I am proud to see that he has chosen to impart his innate motivation to learn and curiosity to the next generation. – Chris “Doc” Hahn, MBA, Ph.D.