RACHAEL GETS A SAY ON HOW TO SPEND BILLIONS

There are 128,000 teachers in Victoria, and Rachael Gore is representing them all.

As you read in our June edition, the Victorian Education Department selected Rachael – Ms Gore to her students, passionate crusader for STEM and student wellbeing – to participate with other leading educators in the Ministerial Review Group to design the new National School Reform Agreement.

The Agreement sets out how the billions of dollars in schools funding that the commonwealth allocates to the states and territories should be spent. It’s one of the biggest public expenditures our collective governments make and is therefore hugely significant.

The participants were asked to focus on bold, creative, “spiky” ideas to improve the equity and excellence of Australian schools.

Rachael, who was given pride of place at the event next to the review group’s chairperson, tells us that all participants are determined to raise standards for everyone, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, those with disabilities, and First Nations students.

She said that APC’s recognition factor is incredibly strong among participants from all parts of Australia, and that our school was spoken of as a beacon for others, with many ideas worthy of emulation, including our positive education and student voice programs and our emphasis on creativity and academic excellence.

We are, of course, delighted to offer the lessons from our success to other schools to help ensure every young Australian gets the best education possible.

The final report of the review group wil be released at the end of October, and we will ask Rachael to sum up APC’s influence in a future newsletter.