A great education system provides equal opportunity for all

In what may be the least surprising piece of research that will be released this year, a new study launched at the?SMH’s Schools Summit?this week shows the concentration of disadvantage in our national school system is intensifying.

This important work by former teacher and Education Secretary Dr?Michele Bruniges?shows that the percentage of schools with concentrated socio-educational disadvantage is growing?—?from 18 per cent of all schools across the nation in 2017 to 22 per cent in 2023. Michele’s research defines concentrated disadvantage as where more than half the student population at the school are classified in the bottom quartile of socio-educational disadvantage.

That’s nearly 2,000 schools where half the student population faces social, economic, linguistic or physical challenges. Again, unsurprisingly, these numbers are heavily concentrated in public secondary schools. It is for this reason that this week’s?announcement of increased public school funding?in NSW is so important.

This trend is a warning sign of an increasingly stratified society where there are those who can buy their way into sustained privilege for their children.

We are seeing communities broken down along class lines where students who need the most support risk slipping through the cracks.

I was briefed on the research by Michele this week and was taken by the clarity of her work: while we talk about the nation of the fair go, every year we are moving further away from that vision.

When you dig deeper into this work, what is clear is that these findings are a deeper reflection of the injustices NCOSS members deal with every day.

It's just another way that a child’s postcode and parent’s pay-packet have an outsized impact on the lives they will live.

I read Michele’s report as a call to arms for anyone who cares about a cohesive society, but also a vindication of the important work NCOSS and our members are already undertaking.

This week NCOSS has also released our?Impact Report?into our ‘Mirrung’ or ‘belonging’ project which we have been conducting at Ashcroft Public School since 2022.

The focus of this work is to reimagine what a school is, how we might connect the school with its family, its communities and the services they need. You may know it as an integrated service model.

The philanthropically funded project has tested a range of ground-breaking interventions including:

• early intervention in both learning and health challenges
• allowing children to design extra-curricular activities that would normally be out of their reach
• tailored health and well-being services for children and their families, including breakfast clubs and service navigation support and
• support for parents with accessing adult education, employment support and volunteering opportunities.

It is early days for this innovative project but the Impact Report shows the signs that this program is making a material difference to the lives of the students:

• school attendance has significantly improved
• student performance is trending up
• student and family well-being are growing, and
• the school community is an active and engaged one.

Programs like Mirrung are part of the answer to the fundamental question Michele‘s research poses: are we prepared to look at these trends and shrug our shoulders or do we look them in the eye?

Of course, remediation is not enough, Michele also calls for systemic interventions like reviewing school zoning, resource sharing and the perennial issue of funding priorities.

But at its heart the answer begins in seeing a school as more than an ATAR-machine and an integral part of each community.

#educationequity #smhschoolssummit #mirrung #ashcroftpublic

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