It is no surprise that Anne Steele is working in Tasmania’s Catholic Schools. Anne attended Sacred Heart College in New Town from Prep to Grade 12, where her mother was an old scholar, prefect and teacher. Anne’s brother attended St Virgil’s College, and her daughter is the third generation to be Captain of Delaney House.
Anne has taught in many different locations since she started teaching in 1993 at Devonport’s St Brendan-Shaw College. She has taught at St Mary’s College, MacKillop College, St Aloysius Catholic College, Dominic College, Sacred Heart College and Guilford Young College. Anne has taught maths, computing, science, Religious Education, physical education, health and sports science.
Swimming has always been part of Anne’s life. She watched her older brother swim at St Virgil’s and her mother coach the Sacred Heart swimming team. At nine years old Anne decided to try swimming for herself and joined the Virgiliannes Swimming Club. She found herself winning state medals from the age of ten and she represented her school in many carnivals from Grade 4.
The discipline of swimming gave Anne life skills and attitudes that she appreciates today. She found that open water was her forte and swam across the Derwent River at thirteen years old. Six years ago, Anne realised a dream by swimming across the English Channel, and raised an incredible $380,000 for the Children’s Cancer Institute; a charitable cause close to her heart following the death of one of her students to cancer. Anne was recognised as Tasmanian of the Year in 2007.