Broadmeadows Primary School and Hume Central Secondary College are among eight Australian schools recognised for outstanding student results achieved in disadvantaged communities.
Social Ventures Australia (SVA) director Sue Cridge said schools involved with the Bright Spots Schools Connection proved exceptional despite their often challenging and complex neighbourhoods.
“They show what can be achieved,” Ms Cridge said. “They know what works and how to excite their students about learning and the opportunities it can create.
“These schools have something to teach us all. We can all learn from them so success in these ‘bright spots’ can spread to become a bright system.”
Ms Cridge said while debate raged about education funding and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, the Hume schools were proving that strong leadership and responding to local needs was a potent recipe for success. For their efforts, the schools will receive financial, mentoring and networking support from SVA. Hume Central college principal Glenn Proctor said the support of SVA would allow his school to further develop staff leadership capacity.
And Broadmeadows Primary School principal Keith McDougall said he was “stoked” with the school’s prominence,
“To be able to work with highly successful schools and their communities is a privilege,” Mr McDougall said.
“To have an organisation with the proven track record of Social Ventures Australia supporting us in our work will provide us with much greater scope to build sustainable, successful practice for our children and their families.”
Ms Cridge said SVA would work alongside each school and its leaders to help develop a strategy that builds on the existing strengths of each school. They could then implement the plan by drawing on the resources, skills and relationships within the SVA network.
“SVA’s ambition is to help these ‘turn-around’ schools stay around and share their success so these bright spots in education help build a brighter system for all students,” she said.
