Guildford Public School

Location: South Western Sydney

Guildford Public School is a primary school which has an enrolment of around 570 students. 94% of our school is from a non-English speaking background. Our school is located on the traditional lands of the Dharug People.

How has your school used its Gonski funding?

In 2016 Guildford PS received $1,054,000 in funding, which was used to support our students, teachers and school community. It improved educational outcomes for our students, created meaningful connections with our community members and provided our teachers with training and professional learning opportunities.The Gonski funding enabled our school to have off-class Assistant Principal mentors, including an innovation mentor to improve teacher quality and to meet professional development goals. To provide extra learning support our school employed a speech pathologist twice a week and three additional School Learning Support Officers (SLSO’s - Teacher’s aides) to assist students with additional learning needs in the classroom and on the playground. A Community Liaison Officer (CLO) has also connected with our community to develop successful partnerships and relationships.

How has Gonski made a positive difference for students?

A specific example of how Gonski funding has made a positive impact on the students of Guildford PS is through the employment of an additional teacher and SLSO to develop a Safety Net Class. This type of class has provided these students and those of their stage with a lower class size, increased support and a more effective teacher to student ratio. The positive result for students of this class included 70% of students moving from learning to read to being able to read to learn, an outstanding overall improvement of student’s attitude towards school, including a 19% increase from 80% to 99% of students feeling a sense of belonging within our school community and a significant improvement in student’s belief in the own abilities.

What could your school do with Gonski funding in the future?

Full Gonski funding would enable Guildford PS to employ additional specialist teachers and SLSOs to support student needs and to better facilitate Early Action for Success. The employment of an Occupational Therapist would assist students who struggle with fine and gross motor skills. Employing a counsellor 5 days per week instead of 2.5 days would significantly reduce waiting times for students. To better support our communication with families who speak English as an additional language, an additional classroom would be purchased as a community hub and additional CLOs would be employed. The full Gonski funding would also enable us to provide students with financial assistance to bridge the equity gap between families.