Tess Gilfedder
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EMAIL THE PM
We need to send a message to the Prime Minister that our children and teachers deserve fully funded public schools.
This is a once in a generation opportunity. Let's make sure we keep the pressure on governments to finally deliver full funding, for every child.
If you have time please customise and edit the email below, it will have more impact if it is customised. Changing the subject line will also increase the impact of your email.
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Tess Gilfedder published Federal Women's Conference intro text in Federal Women's Conference - Take Action! 2024-11-14 14:31:23 +1100
Federal Women's Conference intro text
FEDERAL WOMEN'S CONFERENCE
Take action for full funding!Join us in taking the below actions to put pressure on the Prime Minister to fully fund public schools now!
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Submission Guide for Schools
Why write a submission?
Public input into plans, policies, inquiries and other legal processes or documents are called ‘submissions’, usually managed through what is called a public consultation process. Not all policies and plans will be opened up for public submissions. When they are invited, submissions offer the public, public interest groups and other stakeholders such as businesses or associations the chance to share their concerns, knowledge and recommendations on the issue at hand.Writing a submission is a good way to put forward your case in a meaningful way. It is important that lots of people and organisations with different views and perspectives are heard.
Your voice and your views matter. You have a right to be listened to and making a submission is an important way of being heard.
Do I have to identify myself?
Most submissions become public once they are made. They may be available on the government or agency’s website. You may not feel comfortable identifying yourself. If that is the case, make it clear in your submission or cover letter that you are making the submission anonymously. Your submission may still be publicly available, but your name and contact details won’t be.Even if you don’t identify yourself by name, you should still explain who you are. For example, “I am a public school teacher”, “I am the guardian of a child attending public school” or “I represent X constituency”.
How do I write an effective submission?
Remember, you don’t have to have any particular high-level policy or legal expertise to write a submission. A submission doesn’t have to be overly technical or “legal” to be effective. You can write an individual or joint submission.A submission doesn’t have to be in any specific style but be respectful and try to write in a clear, concise way. Try to make your submission as easy as possible for someone else to read. Your response does not have to be overly technical to be effective.
Your submission doesn’t have to be long. Concentrate on the things that you know about and leave out those things that you don’t have much to comment on.
Below is a draft structure for a submission that you can use as a starting point.
1. Introduction
a) Who are you? (Individual or organisation)
b) Top line summary of why this matters to you.2. Your position on the matter
a) What is your position and why? What are the things you want to see and why?
b) What would a resolution to the issue under inquiry mean for you and your community/ communities you represent?
c) Any stories or statistics from your or your organisations experience with the issue under inquiry.3. Close
a) Summarise your arguments
b) Ask for the solution.It’s important that you write your submission in your own words and from you or your school's experience and perspective.
What should I include?
Outline school context, focusing on student need:- How many students from diverse backgrounds and equity cohorts do you have?
- What are their specific learning needs and how are you managing these with resource shortages?
- Are you experiencing workforce shortages? Subject shortages? Specialist staff shortages?
- Do you have enough specialist support and learning programs in place for students who need extra help?
- Do you have large class sizes?
- What is working well and what could you do with more funding?
Key messages:
- The gap between the Albanese Government’s offer to states of 22.5% of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) and the full 25% is worth an additional $1000 per student. Yet, their legislation is proposing to lock in a floor of only 20% which any future government could revert to, resulting in funding cuts to schools.
- Reinforce the importance of the Commonwealth government setting a floor of 25% SRS share as opposed to 20%. Explain how this extra funding would make a difference to your school and the unmet needs of students and staff.
What format should I use?
The Better and Fairer Schools (Funding and Reform) Bill 2024 Inquiry has confirmed that it will accept submissions either through uploading to the online portal here, via email at
[email protected] or by post to:Committee Secretary
Senate Education and Employment Committees
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600Please note that postal submissions will need to be received by the closing date, so you’ll need to factor in mail delivery time.
Once you’ve made your submission, they will be uploaded in batches here. It’s important to know that your submission remains ‘property’ of the committee until it’s published
online. You cannot distribute or promote it until it is published. Then you can promote it widely.Please send a copy of your submission to [email protected] if you are happy for further promotion.
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Tess Gilfedder published AEU PLACES IMMEDIATE BAN ON IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL REFORM AGREEMENT in Blog 2024-10-09 10:05:59 +1100
AEU PLACES IMMEDIATE BAN ON IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL REFORM AGREEMENT
This ban will remain in place until such time as the AEU Federal Executive determines that there is a genuine pathway for all public schools across the nation to achieve the minimum 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard.
AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe said: “We have made our position very clear. After more than a decade of inequality and endless promises by governments, we cannot stand by while another generation of students miss out on the resources that they need for their education. And we cannot accept a reform agenda that will be rolled out from next year while the status of funding for NSW, VIC, QLD, SA and the ACT remains unclear and increasingly looks as if it will be status quo.
“This is a national issue. While claims of ‘full and fair funding’ have been made by the Albanese government, our members in WA, NT and TAS know that a deal which falls 4% short of 100% is not full and fair funding. Further, the shift to a ten-year timeframe, means that public schools are now facing a prolonged pathway to 100%.
“The situation is untenable. In public schools today, we have chronic funding shortfalls, workforce shortages, increased workloads and students who need extra learning support. The failure to fund our schools properly impacts deeply on the teaching and learning conditions for teachers, education support staff and for students,” said Ms Haythorpe
The AEU Executive has resolved that:
- The Better and Fairer Schools Agreement has as a core purpose, a commitment from the parties to “commit to actions that will support full and fair funding for schools, build a world class education system for all students, and encourage and support every student to be the very best they can be, no matter where they live or what kind of learning challenges they face.
- Such actions as outlined under the three pillars of A) Equity and Excellence B) Wellbeing for Learning and Engagement and C) A Strong and Sustainable Workforce are embedded in a national reform agreement which is the vehicle for the Commonwealth government to deliver funding to jurisdictions based on the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) and associated loadings.
- The ongoing negotiations between the Commonwealth and State and Territory governments have failed to deliver a full and genuine pathway to 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard due to the Albanese Government’s offer failing to provide a full 25% Commonwealth share of the SRS and failing to deliver on the removal of the 4% depreciation tax from the State and Territory SRS share.
- The implementation of any government reform agenda without the essential funding that is required to meet the needs of the public school system, places an increased workload burden on the teaching profession, while at the same time denying schools the resources needed to achieve high quality teaching and learning outcomes for their students.
- The AEU Federal Executive determines to place an immediate nation-wide ban on the implementation of the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement, particularly initiatives which are unfunded and that will increase the workload of the overstretched and under-resourced teaching profession.
- This ban will remain in place until such time as the AEU Federal Executive determines that there is a genuine pathway for all public schools across the nation to achieve the minimum 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard.
Ms Haythorpe continued, “As we issue this nationwide ban, we are once again renewing calls on the Albanese Government to urgently resume school funding negotiations with the state and territory governments to achieve five-year bilateral agreements which deliver the minimum 100% Schooling Resource Standard for all public schools.
“The Albanese Government cannot implement reforms without providing proper funding to pay for them. Under the current circumstances the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement is not better and it is not fairer for teachers and students. If it is implemented without the full resources needed for public schools, it will increase the workload of the already stretched teaching profession.
“In the lead up to the last federal election Prime Minister Albanese promised to ensure that every public school was on the pathway to 100% full funding. As we rapidly head towards another federal election it is critical that the Albanese Government makes good on that promise for the future of our children and the future prosperity of our nation.
“The Albanese government has the power to resolve this by increasing their share to 25% and ensuring that state and territory governments commit to 75%. Make no mistake, we will commit the full resources of our union to achieving full funding for all public schools and their students.”
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Tess Gilfedder answered 2024-10-08 10:13:41 +1100Q: Select from the options below:
A: Speak to local schools
PUT YOUR HAND UP FOR EVERY CHILD
Winning full funding for public schools can only happen when people like you join together and take action.
Right now we're ramping up pressure on the Albanese Government to show leadership and increase their share of funding.
Please tell us what you can do to help by filling in the form below.
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UNITED STAND FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING
This joining of forces is a momentous milestone in the For Every Child campaign and signals the clear significance and urgency of delivering the full 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard. This investment is vital to address inequality in student outcomes, and support the high-quality teaching workforce that gives so much to public education every day.
It also marked the launch of a book of stories from the field – submissions we’ve received from teachers, students and community members sharing their experiences of public education and vision for a fully funded sector.
We're delivering a copy of the book to all Federal Parliamentarians, so that they can hear about the impact of school funding from the people it affects most.
Time is quickly running out to lock in new school funding agreements that don't leave public schools underfunded for another decade.
We won’t rest until every public school is fully funded, for every child.
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RESOURCES DELAYED ARE RESOURCES DENIED
The critical funding and support needed for Australian public school staff and students should not be compromised amidst a political spat between governments which has the potential to deny long awaited promised funding for public schools.
With only 1.3% of public schools funded at the minimum benchmark, the Schooling Resource Standard, the stark reality is that public schools have waited more than a decade for the vital resources that they need to deliver high quality education for every child.
Students on the cusp of finishing Year 12 are amongst the first cohort of students who were promised this funding but have not had the full benefits they were entitled to.
In the lead up to the last federal election, Prime Minister Albanese promised to ensure that every public school was fully funded. This current deal on the table, of an additional 2.5% or nothing, is inadequate and does not deliver on their promise.
This has the potential to entrench inequality in a way that we have not seen since the Coalition Government changed the Australian Education Act in 2017. The Government cannot expect to implement a reform agenda without resolving the public school funding negotiations first.
Delivery of full funding must be a joint commitment from both the Commonwealth and the State and Territory governments. The fact that five states and one territory are refusing to sign the current deal is a clear sign that the Albanese Government’s offer is not good enough.
Time is quickly running out on this issue with school principals, teachers, education support staff and parents calling on all governments to work together to deliver full funding for public schools now.
You can help to send a message to the Prime Minister that our children and teachers deserve fully funded public schools by emailing the PM here.
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Tess Gilfedder published NEW RESEARCH SHOWS THE URGENT NEED FOR FULL FUNDING OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS in Blog 2024-08-01 13:35:57 +1000
NEW RESEARCH SHOWS THE URGENT NEED FOR FULL FUNDING OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS
In the survey of thousands of Australian public school principals and teachers, conducted in March and April:
- 75% of teachers said they work more than 41 hours per week, with the average full-time teacher working 51.8 hours per week
- Only 4% of teachers said they believe their school is well-resourced, and 89% of teacher said they do not have sufficient resources to appropriately meet the needs of students with disability.
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Nearly 40% of principals said they will not have adequate classrooms to meet enrolment demand in the next 3-5 years, with the average school requiring 4.5 additional classrooms.
- Teachers are spending an average of $963 of their own money each year on classroom supplies, amounting to approximately $243 million per year nationally.
- 94% of teachers said their school is currently have difficulty in retaining teachers in the profession, with less than 18% of teachers planning to stay until retirement.
Except in the ACT, public schools across Australia remain funded below the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS), which is the minimum level governments agreed a decade ago was required to meet the needs of students.
The challenges in schools have never been greater - more diversity and complexity in student need, increasing wellbeing and mental health issues and acute shortages of teachers due to unsustainable workloads.
Our principals, teachers and support staff are doing an extraordinary job, but they are being asked to do too much with too little and there just aren’t enough of them.
Fully funding public schools is the only way to ensure every child gets the support they need to succeed, and we can recruit and retain sufficient numbers of teachers. There needs to be additional teachers and counsellors in public schools, along with more support staff and specialist staff, such as speech therapists.
The AEU research comes after an inquiry, ordered by Education Ministers, warned in December that the underfunding of public schools is “undermining other reform efforts with real implications for student educational and wellbeing outcomes, teacher attraction and retention”. The Expert Panel that conducted the inquiry said the need for full funding was “urgent and critical” and it was a prerequisite for student learning and wellbeing improvement.
In the AEU survey, principals said the biggest beneficiaries if public schools were fully funded would be students who have fallen behind in literacy or numeracy and students with disabilities or learning difficulties.
Teachers need additional support for students with disability or behavioural issues, and more time within their paid hours for lesson planning, assessment and reporting were critical to assist them to improve student outcomes.
Principals, teachers, parents, unions, community members and state government all believe the Albanese Government should lift its SRS share from the current 20% to 25% by 2028.
This is critical if we are to address critical problems with attraction and retention of staff, and to ensure schools can provide the educational programs and supports students need.
The state governments also needs to step up and fund a genuine 75% of the SRS. That includes getting rid of the accounting loophole that inflates their SRS share by 4% via the inclusion of non-school spending.
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Tess Gilfedder published We’ve covered thousands of kilometres, for every child. 🚐 in Blog 2024-06-18 16:45:49 +1000
We’ve covered thousands of kilometres, for every child. 🚐
Over the last month we:
- Visited schools from the inner city to the outer suburbs and the regions.
- Spoke to hundreds of teachers, parents, support staff and principals.
- Had hundreds of new sign ups to the For Every Child campaign because of direct conversations about the importance of public education funding.
- Ensured public education was front and centre in the news with coverage across major media outlets in print, online, radio and television.
During our tour we stopped in Sydney for Public Education Day, where we were joined by the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, as well as Federal Education Minister Jason Clare.
Anthony Albanese is the first Prime Minister to join us on Public Education Day, a testament to the progress we’ve made during this campaign.
He spoke about the importance of Australia’s public education system, saying:
"All Australians can proudly point to public education as one of our great strengths as a nation. A quality education system that is available to everyone regardless of their postcode, their wealth, faith or ethnicity. An education system that is an intrinsic and transformative part of our social fabric...”
It’s encouraging to hear this support for public education from the Prime Minister. But we need increased investment to really change lives.
Send an email to PM Anthony Albanese urging him to back public education with full funding?
Already thousands of us have contacted the Prime Minister about this, showing that the issue of school funding is deeply felt by Australians. And he has taken notice.
Let’s keep the pressure on Anthony Albanese to be the Prime Minister our children need, by delivering full funding for public schools.
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TELL US WHY YOU ARE #PROUDTOBEPUBLIC
Millions of Australians have attended public schools, and we know first-hand the positive impact that teachers and education support staff have had on our lives.
Australia’s public education system is globally unique, it provides students with hope, opportunity, and a sense of purpose. No matter where you come from or where you live, you’re entitled to a high-quality public education.
But right now, our world-class public system needs your support. Only 1.3 % of public schools are at the minimum funding benchmark agreed to by governments. In public schools across the nation, teachers and students are giving 100% every day but they need to be backed by governments with full funding.
The 23rd of May is Public Education Day and we want to celebrate Australia’s incredible public schools as we call on the Albanese Government to fully fund public education by delivering a minimum of with 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS).
This Thursday, it is time to celebrate public education. We will be sharing my photos from my school days and I’d love it if you joined me in explaining why you are #ProudToBePublic on your social media feeds. Join us me in public school pride?
So, dust off your old photo albums or scroll back through your Facebook photos and share your public school alumni pride. In doing so, you’ll be raising the public awareness of how fabulous our schools are as we continue the campaign for full funding.
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Tess Gilfedder published Federal Budget fails to deliver full funding in Blog 2024-05-22 14:01:44 +1000
FEDERAL BUDGET FAILS TO DELIVER FULL FUNDING
We were in Canberra on Budget night and there was a buzz about the cost of living measures, paid practicums, teaching scholarships, HECS debt relief and more, but for public schools, teacher, education support staff and students, the budget was strangely silent.
While we understand that school funding negotiations are continuing between the Commonwealth and state and territory governments, Tuesday’s budget provided a critical opportunity for the Albanese Government to meet their election commitment to put all schools on the path to 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS).
The issue of full funding for public schools is unfinished business for the Albanese Government and must be resolved this year.
Right now, only 1.3% of public schools are funded at the 100% (SRS) needed. This is the minimum level governments agreed was required to meet the needs of students a decade ago.
The challenges are too great, and the cost of inaction too high for governments not to deliver on funding the future of our nation.
There are unacceptable achievement gaps between children from different backgrounds and locations, acute teacher shortages and alarming declines in student wellbeing and engagement. We understand the problems facing public schools today, now it is time to deliver the solutions.
Our schools need to be backed by governments with the resources needed to ensure that every child has access to a high-quality education, delivered by their amazing teachers across Australia.
Together we can achieve full funding for public schools. Click here to get involved in the campaign and help us win.
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WEEK OF ACTION: 12th - 15th March
Read moreAcross Australia, teachers and education support staff in public schools are giving 100% for their students. But they need to be backed by governments with the resources needed to provide high-quality teaching and learning for their students.
Right now, only 1.3 % of public schools are at 100% of the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) - the minimum funding level.
Fixing this is urgent, and the only way to ensure every child has the support they need to succeed.
This year the Albanese Government is negotiating new school funding agreements with each state and territory. We need your help to make sure that these agreements deliver full funding for public schools, because it’s the best investment that Australia can make for the future of public education.
So, this week, we’re turning up the pressure on the Prime Minister. Join in here.
Every day this week we will be using different online tools to call on the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to make sure that public schools are fully funded.
Whether it’s sharing your story, posting on social media, or sending an email – your voice will help convince the PM to invest in our future by fully funding public schools.
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Dunkley
VOTE TO SUPPORT FULL FUNDING FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN DUNKLEY
Use your vote to ensure no child is left behind.
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Tess Gilfedder published Inquiry says full funding of public schools is urgent in Blog 2023-12-12 16:01:00 +1100
Inquiry says full funding of public schools is urgent
An independent expert education panel has called for governments to deliver full funding of public schools, saying it is “urgent and critical”.
After a six month inquiry, the expert panel told education ministers that delivering that funding was the “first step to ensuring all students receive the supports they need”.
It said the need for the investment was especially important given private schools are almost all fully funded.
“Addressing funding inequity, coupled with targeted reforms in three priority areas of equity, wellbeing and workforce, will help level the playing field and make Australia’s schools even better and fairer,” the report summary states.
The report is a boost for the campaign and increases the pressure on the Albanese Government and State and Territory governments as they begin negotiations on new school funding agreements. Those agreements must be finalised next year.
The expert panel found 98% of public schools are resourced below the Schooling Resource Standard, (SRS) which is the minimum level governments agreed they required to meet the needs of their students over a decade ago.
Only ACT public schools are fully funded now and NSW is the only state to commit to full funding by 2029.
“All jurisdictions should fully fund schools within a comparable timeframe to ensure students and educators in all schools have access to 100 per cent of Schooling Resource Standard (SRS) funding.
“If schools are not funded to their full and fair levels, the number of students who are left behind and stay behind is likely to grow.”
Australian Education Union Federal President Correna Haythorpe welcomed the findings.
“Fully funding public schools is the best investment we could make for our future,” she said.
“This independent expert panel has made it crystal clear that our politicians must deliver for teachers and students.
“Our political leaders have a historic opportunity to finally end the underfunding of public schools and they must take it.
“Public schools can do wonders with this funding whether it is by increasing the support for children with diverse or complex needs, providing tutoring for those at risk of falling behind or giving teachers more support inside and outside the classroom.”
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