Glebe Public School begins closing the gap on education

Sydney's inner-city suburb of Glebe is closing the gap on education disadvantage.

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Glebe Public School, Sydney

Glebe Public Schools latest annual report revealed it has a student attendance rate of 93 per cent; a target Prime Minister Tony Abbott hopes will be reached nationwide by 2030.

Principal Vicki Pogulis has spent the last 10 years building relationships with the wider community to close the gap on Indigenous disadvantage.

"I think it’s important that we have the respect and trust of all our community. We are a school that is made up of 30 per cent Aboriginal students, but we also have 52 per cent language background other than English," said Ms Pogulis.

Ms Pogulis says she will personally contact a student’s family if they are continually absent from school.

"If a child is not at school for three days than I’ll make a phone call," said Ms Pogulis.

"I'll sometimes have to leave a message but I try and get a discussion [going] and talk about what’s happening: are they sick, can we help, how can we help here at school and a little chat about the importance of coming to school."

An attendance bus which collects children from their homes and takes them to school is one successful Close the Gap initiative used by Glebe Public School.

The community bus also operates for students of St James Catholic School and Forest Lodge Public School in Glebe.


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2 min read

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By Tara Callinan

Source: NITV News


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