December 2024
On behalf of the Australian Council of State School Organisations, I would like to wish you and your families a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Talent and potential come in many forms and can come from anywhere. Many of Australia's brightest and top performing students come from public schools, as demonstrated by NAPLAN and 2023's Year 12 results across states. For example, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) reported NAPLAN results that indicated that 106 of the top performing schools are public (ABC,2023), and in NSW, public school students made up 41 per cent of top academic achievers (ABC,2023). Public education supports all students to reach their potential, including those that private schools may not serve as comprehensively. Public education is a long-term investment in Australia’s future prosperity and will always be important. Public education is a public right – and a high-quality education should be available to every student regardless of a student’s family resources.
As we near the end of another important year in education, I'd like to acknowledge the new funding agreements between the federal government and some state and territory governments that provides more funding public education students. These funding agreements aim to bring public school funding to the minimum required levels (the SchoolResourcing Standard), which provides the funding for 80% of students meet minimum literacy and numeracy benchmarks. While these agreements provide significant funding increases for teaching services, they do not address infrastructure needs or require states to match inflationary increases in teaching costs. Even the increased funding for teaching services under the agreements is still significantly below the resources available for private school students, and given these are 10 year funding agreements, not requiring the states to match inflation in teaching costs will mean that in 10 years, the state school system will again be in crisis after a short reprieve (For example, if we assume an inflation rate of 2.5 per cent over ten years (a very conservative assumption given teaching staff shortages), the amount of funds provided by states in real terms will reduce to 78 per cent of current amounts in real terms). These are critical matters and families will need to discuss these with their local candidates during the 2025 Federal election if we can hope for improvements.
I also want to reflect on another shared responsibility for our children's education. The success of our students relies on the dedicated partnership between teachers, families, and the community– each having important knowledge of students strengths and weaknesses and playing a vital and complementary role in supporting young minds to grow and flourish.
When families actively engage with schools, we see improved student outcomes, enhanced social-emotional wellbeing, and stronger school communities. (Henderson &Mapp, 2002, "A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, andCommunity Connections on Student Achievement) Across Australia, there are examples of excellence, with schools achieving remarkable results through strong community and family engagement – and these practices could be scaled up across Australia. These partnerships and two-way communication focused on supporting students also creates a more supportive environment for dedicated teachers and principals, smoothing out inevitable challenges and potential misunderstandings and enabling teachers more time to focus on educating our children.
ACSSO looks forward to working even more closely with families and state school organisations to strengthen conversations across the community about important matters in public education and these vital partnerships, and together we aim through collaboration to amplify the voices of parents, carers, communities, teachers, principals and state school organisations in crucial policy discussions at both state and federal levels.
Looking ahead, ACSSO remains dedicated to championing public education and fostering meaningful collaboration between all those responsible for our children's education. Together, we will continue pushing for the reforms and resources our schools need to provide every Australian child with the highest quality education.
I would like to acknowledge the commitment of our teachers and school leaders throughout the year. Your work is vital, and as many families learned during the challenges of COVID homeschooling, it is often demanding and complex. Thank you.
To our parents, carers, and community leaders – your active engagement and support of our schools creates the foundation our students need to thrive. This shared commitment to education makes our public schools stronger.
To our students – you remain at the heart of everything we do. Your achievements and potential inspire our ongoing work in the community and advocacy for better resourced, more equitable public schools across Australia.
During this holiday season, I encourage everyone to take time to rest and reconnect. For those celebrating Christmas, I wish you a joyful celebration. To all our families, however you mark this time of year, may it be a period of peace and renewal. And to everyone in our school communities across Australia, I wish you a very Happy New Year filled with opportunity, achievement and joy.
Thank you for your support of public education in Australia. Together, we are building stronger communities and brighter futures for all our children and young people.
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© 2017 ACSSO
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