About the Project
Every young Australian deserves a great education. In communities that are challenged, there are often “outliers” or individuals who are working proactively to address those challenges, They are the “Bright Spots” of practice. The Australian education community is no exception. The Social Venture Australia (SVA) Bright Spots Schools Connection (the Connection) is one of the flagship program in SVA education. It is designed to provide leadership support and development to the leadership teams in high-performing low-socio-economic-status (low-SES) schools and then conduct research to help understand what they are doing differently so that it can be translated into other school settings and inform improved practices. SVA Education provides directed funding, human capital support and brokering of relationships to participating schools to further develop their work, taking it to its next iteration of success. The goal is to keep these schools on the journey of success so that they can pave the way for others to learn both with and from.
The development of the program has been completed in consultation with outstanding principals, education department staff, researchers and education-sector experts. Twenty six schools from three states have been selected to create the Connection cohort. The work has received a positive response from the media and the Education Departments in the three Australian states where it has commenced representing over half of the k-12 students in Australia. Strong relationships with key bureaucrats at the regional and central level have been cultivated. The goal is that the evidence base created by the work can and will inform system change on multiple levels.