Monday 18 December, 2023

As students across the country receive their ATAR results, a new report sheds light on emerging education approaches that could be key to better preparing young people for the future. 

Learning Creates Australia is closer to realising its vision of all young people successfully transitioning from school to further learning or work, following a multi-million commitment from the Paul Ramsay Foundation to enable the next three years of its work driving change in the Australian education landscape.

Tawana’s story explores a positive experience of schooling, but one that she didn’t feel like fully prepared her for work or further education with a lack of connection to community. She shares about learning in a regional town, family and societal expectations as a migrant, in and out of school learning experiences that weren’t recognised and the variety of pathways those have begun to unlock.

Gabriella’s story explores a new found sense of agency when migrating from the Philippines to Australia mid-way through secondary schooling but in contrast found ATAR and her tertiary pathways restricting and limited. Her story includes references to learning experiences outside of school, entrepreneurial skills - running her own business, TAFE framed as a second-rate option and the need to teach more practical things in school that have real world application.

Is shared how they found a sense of agency in their learning only when moving into an alternative schooling environment where they had more of a say in how and what they they learned. They share the challenges of navigating a learning system that doesn’t cater to neurodiversity or disability and where they didn’t feel a sense of belonging.