Commonwealth Bank Teaching award recipient Jenna Cullen shares her plans for the future

Head of Teaching and Learning at Marsden State High School, the country's largest secondary school, Ms Cullen said the award was less about her and more of an endorsement of those who had shaped her.

"I was so blown away by receiving it," she said.

"For me it is a validation of all of the people along my journey. All of the people at the school who have helped me and taught me and been a part of it.

"It's also a validation of all the amazing stuff that's happening in Logan schools."

Teachers in Logan were well-represented in this year's awards, with five of the 22 recipients across both categories hailing from the area.

Ms Cullen's award is also the second received by a teacher at the school, as she works closely with 2019 fellowship recipient Michael Smith who "taught her everything she knew".

Ms Cullen said even from an early age she had wanted to be a teacher, which gave her common ground with the other award recipients.

"For a lot of us there [at the award ceremony], myself included, there wasn't a time when we didn't want to be a teacher," she said.

"When I was about eight years old, I would play school with my little brother. I would tell him 'sit down, we're learning maths'.

"It's definitely a calling and it's something that's so rewarding, it doesn't really compare to anything else."

The award winner followed her calling now works with university students on placement at the school, something she was very familiar with.

"I did my prac here. In my second year of university I came here and was impressed by the complexity of the school," Ms Cullen said.

"I'm in charge of our pre-service teacher program. We have a huge amount of pre-service teachers graduating and joining us as well.

"30 per cent of our staff are within their first three years of teaching, and we have over 250 teachers on-site. There's a lot of complexity but that's a really fascinating part of it all."

One of the key areas Ms Cullen focuses on is helping bridge the gap between the what's taught in university classrooms and what happens in schools to help boost teacher retention.

The award comes with a $45,000 bursary to fund a strategic program within the school and provide opportunities for professional development.

Ms Cullen said several options were being considered, including working more closely with education and neuroscience experts.

"We have so many projects that we're working on, we haven't pinned it down yet," she said.

"We've been working with a Harvard professor, Dr John Collins and we've also been working with a professor based between America and Melbourne, Dr Jared Cooney Horvath.

"Perhaps we'll be able to fly them out, perhaps sending some staff. Things that would have been completely impossible before.

"I also do a lot of work in online learning and I would like to see some high quality learning materials get out to students, teaching them more about the cognitive sciences."