He received a Minister's Award for Excellence in Teaching at the 2020 NSW Minister's and Secretary's Awards for Excellence.

Mr Rhodes, who started teaching in 2012, said he was surprised but honoured to receive the award.

He took pride in employing a student-focused teaching philosophy.

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"I think at the heart of all the decisions I've ever made has been what's best for students and how do we get them engaged, make them happy, make them feel like school is a place they really want to come to and the learning kind of follows after that," Mr Rhodes said.

His fellow teachers and principal Andrew FitzSimons also seemed to appreciate Mr Rhodes' approach to teaching.

In nominating Mr Rhodes for the award, they wrote that he was "an outstanding teacher; innovative, well organised and clear in his direction."

They added he has excellent knowledge, ability and expertise in assuming responsibility for an initiative; exploring, planning, developing and implementing it in the context of the school community and South Coast region in which he teaches.

"He is committed to the engagement and growth of his students and to his own professional learning. Mat has demonstrated a strong capacity to lead, instruct and show evidence of improved student outcomes through professional knowledge, practice and engagement."

Mr Rhodes said he appreciated the support of his colleagues and "energetic and innovative principal".

"It's really nice working with a principal that is so supportive. He definitely encourages all the teachers here to try new things and make sure we are on the cutting edge of new teaching strategies," he said.

"It is really nice to work with all of the wonderful students at Dapto High and all the supportive colleagues that I have here. Without them I don't think I'd be able to achieve this award."

The Illawarra Environmental Education Centre (in conjunction with a number of other EECs around the state) were also honoured earlier this week.

Their 'Environmental and Zoo Education Centres Network - Learning from Home Project' received a Secretary's Award for an Outstanding School Initiative.

Illawarra EEC duo Steve Leake and Nikki Bodel welcomed the acknowledgement.

Ms Bodel said their day usually involved fieldwork in the mangroves, nature studies in the rainforest or geography case studies of the Minnamurra River.

"But when NSW went into lockdown our role changed dramatically as we took on the extraordinary challenge of continuing to support our local public school students who were now learning from home," she said.

"The learning from home resources initiative is a wonderful collaboration involving the entire network of EECs around the state.

"Pivoting from the outdoors to the indoors, Steve and I developed a suite of curriculum based learning from home resources for teachers to deliver to their students.

"The Google Sites website platform we used to produce the resources allowed us to include 360 degree photos, videos, interactive pages and virtual fieldwork..

"Whilst nothing beats the experience of getting out into nature, this is the next best thing and an extremely helpful tool for teachers and students in these unprecedented times."

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Department of Education secretary Mark Scott said it was timely to celebrate the range of achievements in a difficult year for schools, staff and students.

"This year's recipients showed the remarkable flexibility and resourcefulness in our school communities when faced with the learning challenges of COVID-19," he said.

"Many of these schools and teachers have used their significant knowledge of education in their communities to lift their school standards and recognise all students as their own learners."

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