Media Release: APPA Welcomes Gillard Government Support to Empower School Communities

The Australian Primary Principals Association’s (APPA) today warmly welcomed the announcement by the Minister for School Education, the Hon Peter Garrett MP that the Federal Government will expand its Empowering Local Schools program from 2012 to support up to 1000 schools across Australia set and achieve the priorities that are relevant to them.

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Click here to download the APPA Position Paper on School Autonomy.

APPA President Norm Hart said of the announcement:

“APPA is very excited by Minister Garrett’s announcement. The Minister clearly recognises that not every school is the same and that one size does not fit all. We are really pleased to see that the Minister has seen that enabling individual school communities to set the priorities of individual schools will generate the best educational environment for our kids.”

Mr Hart added that recognizing that each school is different and has unique needs, aspirations and expectations is fundamental to the success of the Empowering Local Schools program.

“The extent of local decision-making and the aspects of school leadership that are accepted as being most effectively devolved to the school level must reflect the individual circumstances of each school and its community; a ‘one size fits all’ approach will not work.”

Under the Empowering Local Schools program rollout, selected schools will be able to undertake genuine school-based decision making from May 2012 for a 2 year period. Schools will be selected from across the country, with approximately a third of those first 1000 schools to be in regional areas.

The announcement to enable school-based decision making means that parents will be invited to have a greater say in how individual schools are run and what their priorities will be.

Mr Hart was very supportive of the important place parents will take in determining a schools’ priorities.

“It’s not just schools that inform how a child develops and learns over time. Parents have a fundamental role to play in a child’s upbringing. It’s simply crazy for them not to have involvement at the school level as well.”

Those schools that participate in the program will receive a grant of between $40,000 and $50,000 in initial funding. This funding will go a long way to ensuring that school communities receive the appropriate support to see through the implementation of this important initiative.

The Australian Primary Principals Association represents 7,200 Government, Catholic and Independent principals across Australia.