After a long wait and much anticipation, the catchment area for our new Inner City High School on Cleveland Street was released on Friday - and to be frank about it, it's utterly absurd.

As you can see from the map below, the catchment takes in areas as far away from the site as Darling Point and Woollahra, but the school will not be accessible to families who live directly across the road from it, let alone the nearby areas of Redfern, Darlington and Chippendale.

The fact the catchment skirts around areas with high concentrations of public housing in Redfern and Waterloo is also much cause for concern.

The Aboriginal Housing Company has submitted modified plans for the Pemulwuy Project which includes aboriginal affordable housing and student housing on The Block. These plans and the submissions regarding this new proposal are currently being reviewed by the Independent Planning Commission and you can find details here.

Greens MP for Newtown Jenny Leong and Greens MP for Balmain, Jamie Parker, have called for the 9831 children in their electorates who are not religious to be allowed to continue their studies during periods of Special Religious Education (SRE).

Special Religious Education classes run for 45 minutes a week, and NSW law dictates that where a Special Religious Education program is on offer at a school, ‘no academic instruction or formal school activities should occur during time set aside for SRE.’ This means children whose parents don’t want them to participate receive no teaching during this period.

We need to be measuring the success of a budget on how it is delivering for people. 

A $4.5 billion surplus is not so great when 28,000 people are sleeping rough every night and 60,000 people are on the public housing waiting list in this state. Or when 7 train stations in the Newtown electorate don't have lifts cutting out so many from using public transport. 

This shiny, neo-Liberal budget forgot about so many people.

Students who attend our secular public schools are automatically enrolled in scripture classes without the explicit consent of their parents. While parents can 'opt-out' their children, they have to do it in writing and may not know that's required.

Earlier this year the NSW Liberal Government chose to ignore a number of recommendations from its own review of special religious education and ethics classes in NSW government schools. Those recommendations would have given parents more transparency around their choices in regards to scripture classes and ethics classes. 

Read in Parliament on 30 March 2017:

"I inform the House about the work of Soroptimist International Sydney, which is part of a global movement to improve the lives of women and girls. I recently joined members of the organisation at the presentation of the Soroptimist Sydney Education Grants for Girls. I congratulate the grant recipients:

Tabassum Ghani, Alexandria Park Community School; Aliki Tsopanian, Dulwich Hill School of Visual Arts and Design; Omull-Baneen Moosawee, Holroyd High School; Bilkisu Koroma and Sarah Le, Marrickville High School; Keiko Grantham, Sydney Secondary School; Sara Nazar, Tempe High School; and Beate Akhter, Newtown High School of the Performing Arts in my electorate of Newtown. I thank Doreen Todd and Janet Scott from the Soroptimist International Executive Committee, past President Nerida Murray, current President Lyn Moir and all members of Soroptimist International Sydney. It is wonderful that Soroptimist International Sydney provides these grants to promising young women in inner city and inner west secondary schools to assist them to complete their final years of schooling."

 Links:

• http://www.siswp.org/

Today we stood up in Parliament to oppose the Baird Governments privatisation of prison education services. 

Tamara Smith, Member for Ballina and NSW Greens spokesperson for education today spoke in support of the NSW Safe Schools Coalition Program.

'It is astonishing that we have people petitioning NSW parliament, saying that they do not want schools to be safe for all students that attend them. Surely everyone would agree that our schools should be safe, supportive and inclusive for all young people,' said Ms Smith.

The Greens have attacked moves by the NSW government to remove the Gayby Baby School Action Toolkit from state schools.

"The NSW Education Minister has pulled a valuable resource that his own department has supported, seemingly because he was told about it by the media," said the Australian Greens LGBTIQ spokesperson Senator Janet Rice.

Safe Schools is a vital education program that is about inclusion and support. It is an important tool for the prevention of bullying and discrimination. It addresses challenges faced by gender diverse students and students from diverse families, to ensure that all students are able to feel safe and supported in their school community.

The Safe Schools program is supported by parents, students and teachers from all walks of life. While it has broad community support, it also has particular support from our LGBTIQ communities, who know first-hard what it is like to be the victim of homophobic or transphobic bullying or harassment.

Conservative attacks on Safe Schools have been based on scare campaigns and misleading information about what the program involves.

Safe Schools is an evidence-based program created by educators. The materials and resources that make up the Safe Schools curriculum have been approved by the Commonwealth Department of Education and Training. They are designed to promote an environment where all students feel accepted and able to focus on their education.

Research tells us that many young people who are victims of transphobic or homophobic abuse or bullying will attempt self-harm and it is essential that those young people are supported within their school communities. Ensuring that our young people feel safe and included at school is key to their wellbeing.

When our community embraces diversity and celebrates difference, all of us benefit.

Read more about the Safe Schools Coalition at their website.

For more information on the Greens’ position on Safe Schools email [email protected]