My daughter proves AI won’t replace teachers

“Last year, my daughter Martina started Year 8 at Siena Catholic College on the Sunshine Coast. She needed to pick her electives, and because I know she ’ s a quiet, introverted thinker, I suggested she try digital technologies. I thought it might suit the way her mind works. A few months in, her digital technologies teacher Paul Dionysious asked me to come in for a meeting. I wasn ’ t sure what to expect. He told me she was really good at coding. He said since she started coding, she hasn ’ t stopped – she was coding during lunch breaks and during every spare moment at school. She was moving so fast that in just a couple of months in Year 8, she had already finished the curriculum of Year 9. Mr Dionysious said Apple wanted to invite some students to go to Sydney in July, and that he would like to take Martina. Martina attended the Apple event in July, 2025, to present her work. At 13, with just a few months of coding behind her, Martina came back from that trip buzzing – I hadn ’ t seen her like that before. After that, she and her fried Julia entered and won the 2025 Queensland Premier’s Coding Challenge with Allergy Aware, an app they co-developed that was designed to support people living with allergies. They also placed third at the Brisbane Catholic Education STEM MAD showcase, which earned them a trip to Adelaide for the national finals. During that trip, Martina met the same Apple representative she met in July. She came home and told me, ‘Mama, he said I'm doing really well. He told me to keep going.’ Martina built an app that helps primary school children manage big emotions. Picture: iStock/Feodora Chiosea, Supplied. For a reserved girl like Martina, hearing that from someone from Apple was unbelievable. It fuelled her even more. She kept going, entering the 2026 Apple Swift Student Challenge with an app that helps primary school children manage big emotions, such as anger and anxiety, through guided check-ins and calming tips. In March, Apple announced that Martina was one of just 350 global winners of this prestigious student coding competition. More on this story: No urgent action on generative AI in schools | Victoria bans phones in non-govt schools | Why tech companies are focusing on education She was selected from thousands of entries across more than 35 countries. Of course, I am proud. But what I really keep thinking about is this: Everyone is talking about AI replacing jobs, replacing teachers, replacing everything. But what happened with Martina is proof that there are things AI simply cannot replace. AI didn ’ t see Martina. Her teacher Mr Dionysious did. He didn ’ t just see that she could complete a task correctly, but he saw her . He saw a quiet girl that had a special passion, and he did something about it. No algorithm would have pulled me into a meeting and told me my daughter had talent. No AI could provide the encouragement and support he did. Mr Dionysious built the coding program at Siena College over seven years. He is a dedicated and inventive teacher, which has been recognised with a number of gongs, including the Queensland College of Teachers 2024 TEACHX Award as one of the state ’ s most innovative teachers. Siena College also supported her every step of the way. When she needed to go to competitions, the school covered it. When she needed flexibility, they gave it to her. They created an environment where this could happen. The same can be said about Apple. It created the program and built the tools. It gave a school on the Sunshine Coast the resources so that a teacher like Mr Dionysious could pass that on to students like Martina. Martina is where she is today because of a company that created the right environment, a teacher who could truly see her, and a school that supported her. She found her passion because real people believed in her. That ’ s something no AI can do. I ’ m sharing her story because I think it ’ s important – not because my daughter won a competition, but because this is what schools and teachers and the right support can do for a kid. And I think people should know about it. Of course I ’ m a proud mum. But more than that, I firmly believe that with all the AI hype right now, what happened to Martina is proof that AI can never replace what a great teacher and the right support can do for a kid. Barbara Vieira is Martina ’ s mother and a parent at Siena Catholic College on the Sunshine Coast.

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