A legally blind Indigenous boy who started at Merrylands broken, angry, having suffered unthinkable life trauma, who has been turned around by targeted teaching and individual attention, now thriving. Another student with no family support structure, who is finally able to come to school, able to engage with learning, able to locate some hope in his life.
Or the refugee kids who were too scared to come to school now eager to learn. Or the teachers making time after school to teach literacy and numeracy to parents who don’t speak English. Or the immigrant parents walking into a university for the first time in their lives, to see where their children are going to go. All thanks to extra resources funded by Gonski money.
This is the heart of equity in education for the school’s principal, Lila Mularczyk, who has overseen a wholesale cultural change at her low-SES high-LBOTE (language background other than English)school. Merrylands has introduced individual learning plans for each student, special engagement teams to work with children in need and increased professional learning for staff