WooTube helps Eddie scoop Local Hero award

Innovative Sydney maths teacher Eddie Woo has been named Australia's Local Hero for 2018.

His online "WooTube" channel has more than 100,000 subscribers while his videos have attracted more than eight million views worldwide.

Mr Woo, the head mathematics teacher at Cherrybrook Technology High School in Sydney's northwest, started video tutorials five years ago for a student too sick to attend school.

Collecting the award at a ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra on Thursday, he insisted he was no more a hero than anyone else and there was nothing special or extraordinary about his classroom.

Instead, he had simply opened a window through the internet into the hard work and dedication of educators in schools right across the country.

"I stand before you, not as an individual, but as a proud representative of every teacher around the country who labours day after day, year after year, because we know the power of giving a child the priceless gift of an education," he said.

"Every Australian must play our part in honouring our schools and those who work in them. Our children and future generations are dependent on it."

The son of Chinese-Malaysian parents who migrated to Australia to get a better education for their children, Mr Woo decided to pursue a career in teaching to "pay it forward".

Mr Woo became the first teacher to give NSW's Australia Day address on Tuesday, saying he believed mathematics could break down social barriers.