In August our friends at the Snow Foundation in Canberra convened a day long workshop for donors of all shapes and sizes who are interested in funding education. MPF was represented by myself and our fabulous Western Port Secondary Principal, Christopher Quinn. We were invited to speak about the role MPF has played in supporting the systems changes the schools on the Mornington Peninsula have undertaken.
We were in great company, with Jordana Hunter from Grattan Institute leading the day with a 'state of education in Australia' summary. Highlights included the problem of decreasing rates of attendance, increasing levels of class disruption, low level naplan results, low rates of academic excellence and increasing gaps between higher and lower socio economic communities. We heard from Ben Jensen, CEO Learning First about the problems in curricula, from Jenny Donovan about research at Australian Education Research Organisation, and Jennifer Buckingham from NSW Department of Education.
It was great to be able to share with this eminent group of education specialists the work on the ground that is resulting in improvements to all the indicators Dr Hunter highlighted, to show how philanthropy has played a catalytic role and that sustainability is in sight due to the changes being integral to the system.
We are looking forward to continuing the engagement with a wider group of philanthropists and community organisations so that this life changing work can be expanded to more people and more places.