Sanctuary Point Public School

Location: Sanctuary Point Public School is located on the shores of St Georges Basin about 200 kilometres south of Sydney.

The school has more than 520 students, most of whom are from low-SES backgrounds, with 85 per cent of the school’s students in the lowest two SES quartiles, and 59 per cent in the lowest. There are about 100 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and around 40 students in special needs support classes.


How Sanctuary Point Public School has used Gonski funding

The school used its additional funding to address significant challenges around student attendance, engagement, aspiration and resilience, which was impeding student performance. For example, the school’s research shows that a substantial number of students who are underachieving academically, have attendance rates below 90 per cent.

The school began by establishing several innovative programs to foster student wellbeing and community engagement including a breakfast program and the ‘Sanctuary Point Dollars’ scheme. Under the scheme families are assisted with educational costs such as uniforms, lunches and excursions. For every hour a parent volunteers in the school – listening to students read, working in the garden, the canteen or the library – they receive five Sanctuary Point dollars towards these costs. A full-time family support employee was employed to work with individual families, staff and community organisations.


How Gonski funding has made a difference for students

Gonski funding has led to a major growth of parent and community engagement with the school. Principal Jeff Ward says that seven years ago, before the National Partnerships and Gonski needs-based funding, the low-SES Sanctuary Point community could have been characterised as a ‘heads down, hoodies up’ community but now the surge in pride in the school and the community through the school’s investment in ‘whole of community’ initiatives has led to it becoming ‘hoodies off, heads up’.


What the continuation of Gonski funding means to Sanctuary Point Public School

Student attainment at Sanctuary Point Public School, has improved and school attendance rates are now close to the NSW state average, however the process of attacking complex, entrenched problems such as parent-condoned absenteeism amongst some families remains a problem and can only be improved with ongoing Gonski funding.

<<< BACK


More Gonski Success Stories

Barrack Heights Public School
Barrack Heights PS is located in Shelharbour, 16km south of Wollongong. It has an enrolment of 250 students, most of them from low-income backgrounds.
Forest Lake State High School
Forest Lake State High School in outer suburban Brisbane has an enrolment of around 1450 students from diverse backgrounds.
Ulladulla High School
Ulladulla High School, located on the NSW south coast, has an enrolment of about 1200 students, 70% of whom are from low-income backgrounds.
Yarrabah State School
Yarrabah State School is a three campus Pre-Prep to Year 10 school in the Far North Queensland community of Yarrabah. The community faces complex inter-generational challenges including high unemployment and families living in poverty.
Morayfield State High School
Morayfield State High School has a current enrolment of approximately 1500 students. The majority of students are from low-income backgrounds
Mansfield State High School
Mansfield State High School is a large high school of about 2,200 students from diverse income and ethnic background in southern Brisbane.
Darlington Primary School
Darlington Primary School, in Adelaide’s southern suburbs, has an enrolment of about 300 students from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds.
Roma Mitchell Secondary College
The school opened in 2011 and has three campuses co-located on one site: Girls’ Education, Co-Education and Special Education.
Milton Public School
Milton Public School, a K-6 school on the south coast of NSW, has an enrolment of 650 students about half of whom are from low-income backgrounds. Around 40 students are from non-English-speaking backgrounds, and about 5% of the students are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander.
Minimbah State School
Minimbah State School has a stable enrolment of around 800 students. A high number of students are from low-income backgrounds.
Casino Public School
Casino Public school is a P-6 school of 700 students, located in rural north coast NSW.
Windaroo State School
Windaroo State School in the Mount Warren Park area of Logan City has an enrolment of around 930 students. A significant number of students are from low-income backgrounds. Approximately 50 students are Indigenous and 80 students are from non-English-speaking language backgrounds.