Publication Date

2-2011

Comments

ACER Policy Briefs

Abstract

The idea of school-community partnerships is intuitively attractive because of the benefits they can facilitate. These benefits include availability and access to complementary services to strengthen the focus on learning for students and teachers, and opportunities for continuing learning and skill development for parents and others in the community.1 However, there are also a number of practical challenges with the development of effective and sustainable school-community partnerships. This Policy Brief considers three models of partnerships in schools and communities that have been developed during the last fifteen years in Australia in response to a variety of national, regional, local and community agenda for learning and wellbeing, lifelong learning, and improved learning outcomes. We call these three models 1) schools as community hubs; 2) schools as community learning centres; and, 3) schools as centres of learning excellence. The Brief also distils key success factors from the models.2 It concludes with a number of policy recommendations designed to support the continuing development of school-community partnership models.

 
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