Publishers celebrated at the virtual 2021 EPAAs
September 28, 2021
The prestigious annual 2021 Educational Publishing Awards Australia (EPAAS) were held last Thursday 9 September in an online event on YouTube to celebrate the educational publishing industry, whose resources are used widely across the Primary, Secondary, Tertiary/VET and Scholarly sectors in Australia.
Presented by the Australian Publishers Association, the purpose of the EPAAs is to recognise the important contribution of Australian publishers whose quality content supports educators in the learning and development of Australian students.
Opening the event was James Kellow, president of the Australian Publishers Association (APA). In its 28th year, this is the second year the event has been held online. As we are all getting accustomed to a world where we rely on online and digital services more than ever, Mr Kellow highlighted this as a win for the publishing industry:
“The educational publishing industry,has proven its adaptability and responsiveness in recent times. It’s also demonstrated its readiness for a tech focused future, and having hybrid and wholly digital learning resources available for various teaching environments. The industry is driven by a mission to serve the education sector, lessen the load of teachers everywhere, and inspire diverse learners to deeply connect with their education journey.”
Copyright Agency was honoured to sponsor the award once again for Primary Publisher of the Year, going to Promoting Literacy Development (PLD) for their fourth year in a row, an amazing achievement for PLD, who are going from strength to strength.
Founder Diana Rigg graciously accepted the award, thanking teachers around the country for taking the time to vote:
“As a small publisher, this award is of great significance to the PLD team and will spur us on to keep improving our offering to schools. I’m proud of the fact that every PLD publication is aligned with the current evidence base, and I believe our customers know that PLD is committed to raising the literacy levels in primary schools.”
We also sponsored the coveted Secondary Publisher of the Year, awarded to Jacaranda. This was their fifteenth win of the award, highlighting their consistent excellence in the field of educational publishing, an outstanding result! Shirly Griffith, Director of Jacaranda Publishing had to say:
“We are absolutely thrilled to learn that we have won the Publisher of the Year Award again this year, especially at the end of such a challenging year for teachers and students in schools generally so we are beyond honoured that people would vote for Jacaranda again.”
Both major awards were voted on by the education community, comprised of librarians, educators and booksellers.
Another notable honour was the Mike Horsley Award for longstanding, dedicated service to the educational publishing industry, which was presented to Rosaleen Stewart who has been working in the publishing industry for over 30 years, and made a significant contribution to learning across K-12 in that time.
22 more awards on the night were decided on by the judging panel, a selection of peers. Copyright Agency would like to congratulate all the winners and nominees for this year.
See the full list of winners on the APA website, or if you haven’t already, watch the virtual awards event on YouTube.