Goal support: Seven Hills parent Kirstie Boerst and Greenway MP Michelle Rowland were among more than 100 people who attended the NSW Teachers Federation's 'Kick a goal for Gonski' event in Glenwood on Friday. Picture: Carlos Furtado
Caddies Creek Public School pupils say their school is amazing. But with Gonski funding it could be better.
Teachers, parents and pupils met to "kick a goal for Gonski" at Alwyn Lindfield Reserve oval in Glenwood on Friday, and support the education funding review, which recognised public schools were chronically under-resourced and promised an extra $6.5 billion for all schools.
Federation representative for Caddies Creek Public School, Anne Shearston, said about 45 staff members and a portion of the school's 930 pupils attended.
Watch our video filmed at the event, filmed by Carlos Furtado, below:
"It's about getting funding into the school so that there aren't Band-Aid fixes," she said.
"I think most teachers are proud of what they do but it's just becoming harder and harder [to] reach out to those children that you know you could do more for because there is physically not enough hands and not enough people in the room to help you," she said.
"We're really hoping that we can get smaller classes or additional teachers into the classroom.
"Throwing a pittance at us and saying they'll be right just doesn't work."
Why do you give a Gonski? Tell us below.
President of the NSW Teachers Federation, Maurie Mulheron, said both governments needed to commit to the funding model at the Council Of Australian Governments meeting in April.
"We have proven beyond doubt that Australia has a very unfair, inequitable funding system," he said.
"There's a growing gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students because of the lack of resources and the Gonski review findings gives that opportunity to put money into our system."
Federal MP for Greenway, Michelle Rowland, said "I Give a Gonski" was a grassroots campaign much like the one that put the national disability insurance scheme before Parliament.
"The money itself will depend on when the states sign up, but we are very hopeful that that will be before the end of the year," she said.
More views on Gonski:
‘‘Working in western Sydney it’s clear than for too long our kids have been missing out. What the Gonski review did simplistically was identify that there are gaps in our achievement levels and in order for our kids and our schools to progress on an international level, and to keep up to speed with those leading international nations [in education], our governments need to do more to invest in our kids and in our public schools.
‘‘There are over 60,000 registered supporters of the Gonski campaign. This is all about the kids and all about our schools.’’
Jason Gerke, NSW Teachers Federation city organiser, Blacktown
‘‘In 2007 I took my then four year old little boy to our local public school for his first day of school. I’m delightfully surprised every day at that school. I will be forever indebted to the amazing teachers my children have within public education, teachers who go above and beyond for every single child in their charge.
‘‘It’s time to give teachers the resources they need and deserve in order to do their vital work.’’
Kirstie Boerst, parent, Seven Hills
‘‘We’re looking to the future. This is a generational thing. If we could get the commonwealth government and Mr Garrett to in the next little while guarantee some funding for Caddies Creek, Blacktown South and all the other schools across Australia it would be... extremely awesome. Lets put some pressure on Mr O’Farrell at state level not to cut $1.7 million out of the funding for schooling in NSW over the next four years. We don’t need cuts.’’
Geoff Scott, NSW Primary Principals Association president, Blacktown South Public School principal
‘‘This a national campaign to try and get the federal government to sign up with state governments right across Australia to get a fairer funding deal for our kids into the future. For too long our schools, particularly our public schools, have been starved of funds.
‘‘It’s been 30 or 40 years since the last time our system got a decent funding hit. We’ve got a tiny window of opportunity remaining. This will not happen again where we’ve got a situation that will get this degree of funding into our education system. We need to maximise the pressure on politicians of all political parties to sign up to Gonski.’’
Maurie Mulheron, NSW Teachers Federation president