This excellent bell curve is based on the 2021 data gathered by the government for every school in Australia, all 9606 of them. Peter Hutton (Future Schools https://futureschools.education/) knows how to make the data talk and created this bell curve.
Take a moment to study it carefully. Make it bigger, look at the average, the number and add up percentiles.
It is instantly clear that 84% of schools in Australia are smaller than 772 students. Half of all schools, 4804 schools are smaller than 316 students.
Why does this matter? Because 4804 is a lot of very soft voices.
To be asked to be on boards of influence, you need to be big enough and seen as important before you are invited to participate. In many states, the independent boards have a rule that you need to have a large number of students (e.g. over 800) before you can be on those boards. Canberra, the seat of most far-reaching education decision-making seems a long way from the chalk face, and even taking time to write a response for an inquiry is complex when you have many jobs and no backfill.
The end effect is that small schools’ needs and points of view are underrepresented in government inquiries, newspaper articles, on boards and in peoples’ minds. You desperately want to be heard and impact the future shape of education, but how do you do that as a single voice?
TEA, Transforming Education Australia, is a connector and enabler of small student-centred schools. It is vitally important that small schools get a voice, particularly as they are often sites of innovation and hold a wealth of knowledge relevant to re-inventing education. TEA is one way to unite that voice. In the last half year, TEA has submitted papers to a number of government inquiries investigating the state of education and current challenges. We very much want YOU to join our community of educators and unite in ONE VOICE to represent the needs of schools like ours.
Many choices, One voice, is a very important advocacy goal. Do join!
United we can have our small voices amplified!
This excellent bell curve is based on the 2021 data gathered by the government for every school in Australia, all 9606 of them. Peter Hutton (Future Schools https://futureschools.education/) knows how to make the data talk and created this bell curve.
Take a moment to study it carefully. Make it bigger, look at the average, the number and add up percentiles.
It is instantly clear that 84% of schools in Australia are smaller than 772 students. Half of all schools, 4804 schools are smaller than 316 students.
Why does this matter? Because 4804 is a lot of very soft voices.
To be asked to be on boards of influence, you need to be big enough and seen as important before you are invited to participate. In many states, the independent boards have a rule that you need to have a large number of students (e.g. over 800) before you can be on those boards. Canberra, the seat of most far-reaching education decision-making seems a long way from the chalk face, and even taking time to write a response for an inquiry is complex when you have many jobs and no backfill.
The end effect is that small schools’ needs and points of view are underrepresented in government inquiries, newspaper articles, on boards and in peoples’ minds. You desperately want to be heard and impact the future shape of education, but how do you do that as a single voice?
TEA, Transforming Education Australia, is a connector and enabler of small student-centred schools. It is vitally important that small schools get a voice, particularly as they are often sites of innovation and hold a wealth of knowledge relevant to re-inventing education. TEA is one way to unite that voice. In the last half year, TEA has submitted papers to a number of government inquiries investigating the state of education and current challenges. We very much want YOU to join our community of educators and unite in ONE VOICE to represent the needs of schools like ours.
Many choices, One voice, is a very important advocacy goal. Do join!
United we can have our small voices amplified!