Schools in St George and Sutherland Shire will share in a record $219 million in additional needs-based education funding in NSW in 2017.
The extra funding, which allows schools to secure extra teachers or other specialist help to give students individual help, results from the Gonski agreement between the federal and NSW Government.
Principals and parent bodies have been scouring the 2017 NSW Resource Allocation Model (RAM) table to see how their school fared.
Details were released by Premier Mike Baird and Education Minister Adrian Piccoli at Hurstville South Public School on Wednesday.
The allocation to Hurstville South Public School will be $160,564 more than last year.
Mr Piccoli said the school had used needs-based funding to employ additional staff to provide targeted teaching for students who needed extra support in literacy and numeracy.
“In 2016, 58 per cent of Year 5 students are achieving results that put them in the top two bands of NAPLAN for reading and numeracy combined,” he said.
“This is up from 39 per cent in 2012.”
Other examples of increased allocations this year include:
- Beverly Hills’ Girls High School: $382,817
- Kogarah High School: $415,771
- Arncliffe Public School: $114,938.
- Bangor Public School: $84,638.
- Cronulla High School: $78,941
- Gymea Bay Public School: $113,094.
However, a small number of school will receive less funding.
For example, Hurstville Grove Infant School’s allocation will be $7825 less than last year.
The full list: https://schoolsequella.det.nsw.edu.au/file/f8f73966-e60e-4699-b83e-18017b1895ee/1/24212_RAM_2017_Funding%20Table_AC.pdf
Mr Baird said needs-based funding helped schools and students facing the greatest challenge to lift their results.
“There is absolutely no doubt that needs-based funding, made possible by Gonski, has been of enormous benefit to students right across NSW,” he said.
“That is why NSW signed the six-year agreement and why we continue to press the Commonwealth Government to honour its commitments.
“The extra support students are receiving is showing real results.
“Funding now follows students and their needs, and principals have the flexibility to make local decisions based on the specific needs of their students.
“We are seeing schools engage specialist teachers and additional staff with expertise in areas such as literacy, numeracy and speech pathology to tailor support and respond to the unique learning needs of their students.”