Katoomba High School

Location: Katoomba - Blue Mountains, NSW

Katoomba High School, a comprehensive secondary school in the Blue Mountains of NSW, has an enrolment of about 670 students about half of whom are from low-income backgrounds. There are about 10% Aboriginal students, and 10% from non-English-speaking backgrounds. The school also has a support faculty that caters fort the needs of students with disabilities.


How Katoomba High School has used Gonski funding

Katoomba HS has received over $200,000 in Gonski funding, including approximately $120,000 in 2015. The funding has been used to employ additional staff to boost student literacy & numeracy outcomes across the school, establish a Learning Hub which provides extra support for students with emotional or behavioural needs, offer HSC tutoring for Year 12 students which incorporates individual mentoring, hire a voice teacher to allow students to explore their singing talents, establish the Birriban bush regeneration and landcare project to provide a place where Aboriginal culture is shared and nurtured, and to develop a motorcycle program aimed at increasing engagement and leadership among at-risk students.


How Gonski funding has made a difference for students

Principal Jenny Boyall says that Gonski funding has allowed greater flexibility and creativity to invest in the school according to the particular needs of students. Although it’s early days, the additional funding has resulted in “increased engagement, improved academic results and an enhanced sense of belonging and connectedness for students and the community.”


What Katoomba High School could do with Gonski funding in the future

The full Gonski funding would enable KHS to build on progress since 2014, expanding individual student support, building teacher capacity through more professional development, extending Birriban to include a bush tucker garden, outdoor learning area and provide more opportunity for Aboriginal community members to engage with students, and further developing existing support programs and curriculum areas. Says Ms Boyall, “… we’ve only just begun, and investment in our young people is worth fighting for.”

<<< BACK


More Gonski Success Stories

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 in outer suburban Brisbane has an enrolment of around 1450 students from diverse backgrounds.
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 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 has a current enrolment of approximately 1500 students. The majority of students are from low-income backgrounds
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, in Adelaide’s southern suburbs, has an enrolment of about 300 students from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds.
The school opened in 2011 and has three campuses co-located on one site: Girls’ Education, Co-Education and Special Education.
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 has a stable enrolment of around 800 students. A high number of students are from low-income backgrounds.
Casino Public school is a P-6 school of 700 students, located in rural north coast NSW.
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.