Participate in
Transforming Our Schools
There are three components to
Transforming Our Schools:
Campaign for Independent Public
Schools is a nation-wide campaign based on the
Western Australian experience in establishing independent public
schools, which are non-fee public schools which have greater
autonomy and flexibility than traditional state schools in
curriculum, student support, staff recruitment, financial
management, governance and accountability.
Partners in Learning
is a parent-school partnership model, based on groups of parents of
students in public schools who share a particular educational
philosophy or culture and who want this philosophy or culture
offered as a stream in their school;
Charter for
a Real Education Revolution is a policy direction
statement for education reform directed to governments and policy
makers.
Campaign for Independent Public
Schools
In Britain, Sweden and the United States, a major trend is
underway in which many public schools are being transformed by
acquiring the benefits of greater autonomy and flexibility in
curriculum and culture, while remaining free or non-fee public
schools.
In Western Australia, 34 independent public schools were
established in 2010 by the
WA Department of Education, and a further 64 are being
introduced in 2011. Their development is a model that can be
repeated in public schools around Australia.
Parents and teachers are invited to participate in our
Campaign for Independent Public Schools.
We aim to engage governments, education departments, policy makers
and schools in introducing a program of independent public schools
in every Australian state and territory.
Become involved by filling in
this form.
Partners in Learning
This is a parent-school partnership model, oriented to school-based
innovation and partnership with parents which is applicable to every
school in Australia. It is oriented to parents at the school level
who want to partner with their school in shaping and governing the
design and culture of what their school can offer to students and
their parents.
It is based on the right of every
parent to negotiate with and enter into partnerships with schools
and other education providers to shape and govern the educational
philosophy, culture and pedagogy that best fits their child.
The model based on four key features:
1. Groups of parents participating in
Partners in Learning determine an educational
philosophy, culture and pedagogy that fits what they want for their
child, and this philosophy, culture and pedagogy are subject to a
process of negotiation and agreement with their school (there may be
one or more parent groups in each school);
2. Schools which embrace the Partners in
Learning model undertake to form a partnership with the
participating parent group(s) to implement their preferred
approaches to learning;
3. Parents, teachers and administrators in
Partners in Learning schools undertake to manage the
partnership in a collaborative manner, with reciprocal rights and
responsibilities;
4. Parents and teachers combine to select and appoint a non-parent,
non-teacher mentor for each child as an additional partner
in each child's learning.
Our Partners in Learning groups are established in public
schools. Express your interest in establishing a group in your
school by filling in
this form.
Charter for a
Real Education Revolution
The Charter is a
policy direction statement for the development of a more
sophisticated and strategic public debate about school and education
reform. It is directed to
governments, members of parliaments, policy makers and opinion
leaders.
Text of the Charter:
1.Every child and student is entitled to a portable
Individual Learning Plan that will be accepted by schools,
teachers and specialist practitioners as a foundation document and
ongoing tool for the design and management of each student's
learning.
2.
Every parent is entitled
to negotiate with and enter into partnerships with schools and other
education providers to shape and govern the educational philosophy,
culture and pedagogy that best fits their child.
3. Every parent is
entitled to a student-centred funding entitlement for their child
and young person with a weighting for educational and socio-economic
disadvantage, rural and remote location, and disability or
developmental challenges, to give parents greater leverage in
selecting an appropriate school for their unique child and in
negotiating with and forming partnerships with schools and other
education providers.
4. Every parent is
entitled to an annual financial report from their school on how
their student-centred funding entitlement is spent.
5. Every
conscientious and talented teacher is entitled to ongoing public
investment in their skills, professional development and
remuneration to retain quality teachers in the profession and to
attract the best and brightest of each generation into the teaching
profession.
6. Every teacher who
is not suited to teaching is entitled to active support from
schools, education departments, and career and training agencies in
exiting the teaching profession without industrial relations agendas
inhibiting their rapid movement out of the teaching profession.
7. A ceiling of $20,000 in annual fees should
be set for fee-charging schools who wish to receive public
resources, so that public resources do not drive social
exclusion through inaccessible school fees. Fee-charging
schools may choose to set fees within the ceiling and
receive public resources, or exceed the ceiling and forfeit
public resourcing.
8. National uniformity in school curriculum
is not an important social or educational goal, except in
core literacy and numeracy. The Commonwealth's national
curriculum authority accredits diverse curricula from a
range of education providers.
9. Every student on
reaching the age of 18 is entitled to a Lifelong Learning Account,
in which post-school education, training and further education, and
community education funds may be held and retained for lifelong use
as the student chooses."
Participate
