Petition to Revoke the Cuts to Opportunity Classes
Petitioner:
Ms Annelies Hodge
| Member:
Griffin, James
| No. of Signatories:
1,506
| Date closed:
29/05/2024
To the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly,
We, the undersigned, join with the Artarmon, Balgowlah Heights, and Kingswood Public School Parent & Citizen Associations in expressing our grave concern about the recent decision to halve the number of quality Opportunity Class (OC) places in seven NSW schools.
This decision fails to uphold the government's commitment to supporting our public schools. Instead of creating new OC places to accommodate population growth, it rearranges existing places, which risks harming the quality of the NSW OC program in several ways:
1. It halves access to well-established OC places, which predominantly serve students who could not otherwise attend these schools and are willing to travel to do so.
2. It compromises learning outcomes by moving children to schools with no experience in delivering OC programs or into composite year 5/6 classes, where only half the time is spent delivering their curriculum.
3. It affects the emotional well-being of intellectually gifted students with special needs who require extra support.
4. It places greater strain on teaching staff, who will struggle to deliver a quality program to students at significantly different learning stages and maturity levels in the same class.
5. It reduces learning resources and highly qualified staff in OC schools, negatively impacting other teachers, students, and the broader community.
Therefore, we ask the Legislative Assembly to call on the Government to refrain from implementing cuts to existing OC schools and engage with the community on any proposed changes.
