Jarrod McGrath's work incorporates his personal experiences as much as his professional training.
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The Woden School teacher and pastoral care co-ordinator draws on his experiences growing up with an older brother and uncle with disabilities to help the next generation transition from a rigid educational environment into post-school life and mainstream employment.
His innovative efforts to help students adjust to the mainstream through activities ranging from weekly dance-offs to music festivals, sporting practice and mentoring programs with neighbouring schools earned Mr McGrath a place as a state and territory finalist in the National Excellence in Teaching Awards.
One of 60 teachers nationwide to receive the honour, Mr McGrath was recognised thanks to a nomination lodged by The Woden School's P&C committee.
"I just feel so privileged and blessed to be able to utilise this knowledge that's just been part of my upbringing to help so many other families," he said.
"You can feel quite isolated having a child with a disability and it's very daunting. School is a nice, safe environment – the buses pick them up from home and drop them back five days a week – but then as a parent you have to think, what am I going to do with this child for the rest of their life."
Mr McGrath spent time in the community services sector before entering teaching almost nine years ago.
One of his major passions is encouraging mainstream students to work more closely with pupils with disabilities, in part through a mentoring program between The Woden School, Alfred Deakin High School, Marist College and Canberra Boys' Grammar.
He said he liked to frame the mentoring as a potential career pathway for students, rather than as a charitable act or volunteering.
"You can become a teacher, or a speech pathologist or a psychologist, so it's not just for the students to come and work with the 'poor special ed' children, but to actually find it as a career," he said.
There was also plenty that mainstream students could learn from their counterparts with disabilities, according to Mr McGrath.
He said he found inspiration every day in the passion, enthusiasm, humour and gratitude of his students.
Those traits led to an idea that became Wodenstock, a music festival specifically designed for young people with disabilities.
Now in its third year, the battle of the bands competition open to schools across the ACT has the joint benefit of promoting local musicians' work while connecting Woden School students with one of their passions.
"People with disabilities really engage with music and dance," he said.
"A lot of the young musicians might get their friends coming to gigs and they'll just stand at the back and bop their heads, whereas at Wodenstock they get a really lively audience.
"I experienced it in a band in high school myself. I remember going into a Special Olympics gig for my brother and people were breakdancing on the floor and wanted your autograph at the end of it, and it's the most engaged audience I ever played for as a teenager."
Mr McGrath will find out in early November whether he has made the shortlist for the next stage of the NEiTAs, for which national winners will be named in early 2016.
