Month: May 2017

As with the last blog entry, I was reading up into more details of Sydney Public School sell off wave from the late 90s to late 2000s. What I wasn’t fully aware of is that not just selling the entire schools is a common practice, apparently selling part of the school is also done frequently as well. An example article is Squeeze put on Sydney’s overcrowded public schools on news.com.au.

Since 1987, 11 schools have been closed or amalgamated on the north shore – including Milsons Point Public School and North Sydney Public School.

SCHOOL LAND SALES 2000-2012

. Seaforth PS sold land for $2.5m, enrolments have increased since 2006 from 341 to 478

. North Sydney BHS sold land for $1.3m, enrolments stable

. Erskineville PS, threatened sale headed off after public outcry, enrolments up from 174 to 334

. Rozelle PS sold land for $1m, enrolments up from 304 to 537

. Bonnyrigg HS sold land for $1.1m, enrolments up from 776 to 1038

. Northmead HS sold land for $787,000, enrolments upfrom 715 to 896

. Gerringong PS sold land for $5.3m, enrolments up from 358 to 395

. Camden HS sold land for $7.5m, enrolments up from 1051 to 1176

. Hornsby Heights PS sold land for $650,000, enrolments up from 309 to 344

. Rydalmere East PS sold land for $1.8m, enrolments up from 176 to 191

. Willoughby PS sold land for an undisclosed sum (pre-2000), enrolments up from 733 to 939

I wasn’t aware of Willoughby Public School sold off part of school off. I looked at the overhead view of the school and cannot see which nearby part is the obvious subject of this selloff. Willoughby Public School happens to be one of the most crowded schools in North Shore area with the school that is under the proposal for a major upgrade. The funny part is that the money that results in these selloffs will not even able to purchase a decent size block in the same area nowadays.

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I was doing research on various of Sydney Public Schools and the topic various Public Schools being sold off ten or fifteen years ago. I did not have children back then and wasn’t paying attention to this. I was aware of various of local schools being sold off, but it does not seem as important back then. Now with the surging enrolment, the true impact of those sold off are being better understood. One of the articles I read is Sydney schools face queues as sell-off scheme backfires on SMH in 2014, the problem is getting worse since then.

High birth rate and immigration rate just completely upturned Sydney’s School population trend in a matter of years. Now all the schools that got sold off in inner Sydney city are really starting to hurt, imagine hundreds of classes room that can be put into use almost directly with only minimum spending. With all the ready available sites, they can be expanded more easily as well. The crazy thing is that the schools that got sold off probably could fetch double or triple the amount they got earlier if they are sold today. Not to mention state government is busy trying to find sites in the inner city that are suitable and converting them back into schools. This includes a new high-rise high school is going to be built on the old Cleveland Street High School site at a cost of likely in the hundreds of million.

I think the key lesson is with key public infrastructure, we need to be really careful not to get rid of them for quick short term gain. We need to look at state’s future in twenty, thirty years, not just today’s two to four years election cycle period. Particularly in inner city, key

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There is an article on SMH NSW auditor-general flags larger class sizes. The basic premise is that to deal with rapid increasing in population the easiest way is to increase the classroom size.While it is true that doing would be the most cost efficient way of solving the problem of increasing enrolment. However all the studies I read there is evidence that smaller size class, particularly in the beginning years will improve student’s academic performance. We need think very carefully about this approach of cost saving at expense of education outcome. Australia requires better and appropriately education for their children which is particularly important which advancement of technology and the associated change in society.

We need to invest more into Education and most importantly make the best use of the money we are already spending on it.

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There was a student got stabbed in the eye at the newly created Cammeraygal High School in Sydney. This particularly high school situated in North Shore area and is of high social-economic background, so in theory, should have less of this type of issues. In my Sydney school days just from memory, there was one boy got expelled for organising revenge ambush after school on another student. Another student got stabbed outside of school in Year 12 I think by another classmate of mine. So while there were a number of violent episodes involving people in my year, none were actually played out directly inside the school itself. The school I went to is of middle of road type, just to give some reference on what to expect.

Some school I know got a real bad reputation and deservedly so in my days. My cousin married this guy who used to be a teacher, he quit the profession after a student tried to run him down with his motorcycle. I know in another case where the teach got thrown out of the window by the students. I have been out of High School for a long time and not kept up what is happening these days. I wonder whether thing got better or worse than what it use to be.

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Education Minister Simon Birmingham alone with no other than our PM Malcomb Turnbull just announced new school funding model. Media already dubbed it Gonski 2.0, David Gonski has been commissioned to do another report on education funding. This part is a bit confusing to me, he already did one previously but under the previous Labor Government. I am not sure which part in the Gonski plan 1.0 that was deficient enough to warrant another study in less than six years after the original study was released. The core of the new proposal

It is a “ten-year reform agenda” that will see funding increase from $17.5 billion to $22.1 billion 2021 and $30.6 billion by 2027.

He says 24 schools on the eastern seaboard will “experience negative growth” (ie have their funding cut).

In addition to the 24 schools whose funding will be cut, there will also be some whose rate of funding is slowed over the ten year period the government is talking about.

SMH Malcolm Turnbull announces new post-Gonski national schools funding package

The original study in my view was a solid one and if anything Gillard Government chickened out some of the more critical parts of properly distributing the funds and opt for the option of just throw more money at it. The current announcement goes a way to address this issue and likely in my view not going far enough. I do reserve my judgement until I have a chance to see whether this is a proper effort to reform the education funding or just window dressing.

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There are a number of articles going around regarding homework in Australian school particularly at primary level. There are for and against proponent for each argument. At least in my kid’s public school I have not yet to see what I personally consider as a unmanagable level of homework. What I do not support is an excessive amount of homework particularly at the primary level of schooling. This also happens at Secondary level, however, my personal experience is that by senior years I had reasonable enough experience that I could decide to a degree on what to do and how much to do, so this was not as much a burden.

Homework in correct way and amount is very helpful. It helps the children to consolidate the learning and also let us parents know what they are good or bad at. Thus it will let us know in which area the children in question need to pay more attention. Let’s face it, education is not just what school do, it is the job of both the parent and school to achieve the best outcome for your children.

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