Sarah Bakker named one of Australia’s Most Influential Educators 2025 & 2026
5 mins
Education
Abi Bennett
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We’re excited to share that our Head of Education, Sarah Bakker has been named one of The Educator’s Most Influential Educators two years running (2025 & 2026), recognising her measurable, wide-reaching impact on literacy education in Australia over the past 18 months.
The Award
The Educator’s annual list highlights 50 education changemakers who are shaping the future of Australian education. It follows a rigorous three-month evaluation process, including industry expert consultations and in-depth research to identify leaders driving genuine impact within schools and communities.
“It’s such a privilege to work alongside passionate teachers to transform writing instruction and unlock the voices of Australia’s next generation,” said Sarah upon receiving the award. “This recognition is a testament to the impact of empowering teachers, engaging students and inspiring a lifelong love of writing.”
As The Educator’s Managing Editor for Special Reports, Chris Sweeney, noted:
“Sarah Bakker is one of the Australian education industry’s true changemakers and her innovation and creativity is driving progress, in both her own organisation and across the entire sector. Her contribution delivers value as well as raising the bar.”
Sarah’s inclusion in this prestigious list reflects her commitment to delivering practical, high-impact approaches that make writing more engaging and accessible for students, while empowering educators with tools and strategies to build confident, capable young writers.
High-quality resources
Over the last ten years, Sarah’s work at Seven Steps has had a transformative impact on classrooms across Australia. Her innovative, accessible, curriculum-aligned resources have helped thousands of students build confidence in their writing, while reducing teacher workload and boosting outcomes.
In the last 3 years alone, Sarah has:
- developed each of our new live lessons, delivering them to more than 10,000 students simultaneously
- created the Seven Steps inaugural Literacy Masterclass Series, a first-of-its-kind professional development online event bringing together literacy experts from across Australia and beyond
- led the development of Seven Steps’ AI-powered assessment tool, created in partnership with AI specialists Mark My Words
- restructured our Narrative Writing Course, which went on to win New Digital Course of the Year in the Digital Education Awards 2024
- redesigned the award-winning NAPLAN Writing Success resources as a course on Teacher Hub
- created a suite of NSW-specific resources to support teachers using the new Department of Education units alongside Seven Steps
- developed a new Read to Write course and an accompanying Reading–Writing Connection webinar to help teachers integrate reading and writing instruction, which went on to win the Best New Digital Course at the Digital Education Awards 2025.
Take a look for yourself on Teacher Hub.
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“Sarah is one of the most passionate, hardworking, quality-focused educators working in Australia today.
She has an exceptional ability to understand what teachers need and to create resources, experiences and tools that genuinely make a difference. Part of that is her willingness to speak to as many teachers and customers as possible to learn from them and connect with them.
In the past 18 months alone, she has developed internationally recognised curriculum resources, delivered live lessons to more than 10,000 students at once, launched a literacy professional development series and led the development of an AI-powered assessment tool that is already being embraced by schools.
She is driven by a genuine commitment to improving literacy outcomes for students and helping teachers across Australia, and everything she creates reflects that.”
– Kathleen Killick, CEO
Teacher support
Sarah also offers hands-on support to teachers – giving practical advice, responding to real classroom challenges and designing training and resources that inspire confidence and bring writing to life.
You can book in a one-on-one session or a whole school session for support and advice about Seven Steps, Teacher Hub and writing in general. Ask her all your curly questions, find out about the new AI assessment tools coming soon to Teacher Hub and give her your wish list for future resources.
About Sarah Bakker
Sarah Bakker is a leading education professional dedicated to transforming writing instruction in Australian classrooms. As Head of Education at Seven Steps to Writing Success, she develops high-quality resources for teachers and schools to make the teaching of writing more engaging, effective and achievable for every student.
For schools
Better writing outcomes, your way
Every school is different – your team, your students and your goals all matter.
We’ll work with you to combine the right mix of training, resources and ongoing support, all designed to improve writing across every classroom.