Across Australia, some of the country's most marginalised students are turning their lives around thanks to a little-known network of fee-free private schools that take a different approach to learning. The ABC’s been given rare access to these special assistance schools that were set-up to serve disadvantaged children.
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00:00Spell reception. Get ready. R-E-C-E-P-T-I-O-N.
00:09At Mastery Schools Australia, southwest of Brisbane, most students arrive years behind
00:14their peers and facing a life of frustration.
00:18The data is just that if you're illiterate or innumerate, your life outcomes are just
00:23so much more diminished.
00:26P-R-O-M-O-T-E.
00:29Often, remarkable turnarounds take place in these classrooms. Year 8 school refuser Hannah
00:34arrived five years behind her peers.
00:37I hated school. That was the one thing I did not want to do. I would barely go.
00:44And I can tell you that your attendance percentage at the moment, this year, is 96%. That's pretty
00:51good.
00:52That's much better.
00:53Yep.
00:54Today, Principal Sharon Angel is meeting with Hannah to deliver her maths results.
00:58I can tell you that your maths improvement has been three years in just the one year
01:03since you've been here.
01:04I don't believe that.
01:06That's pretty cool, isn't it?
01:07That is cool.
01:08Yep.
01:09Take your work or fix it, please.
01:10The school's results were recognised this year with the prestigious International Award.
01:15It puts its success down to evidence-based teaching practices called direct explicit
01:20instruction.
01:21Everyone, what word?
01:22Substantial.
01:23Yes.
01:24We need at least 24 to 40 exposures of something to get it into long-term memory. So direct
01:28instruction allows us to do that. And we use lots of verbal rehearsal so the kids are saying
01:33their answers aloud.
01:35Experts say this teaching style needs to be part of the solution right across Australia
01:40to address alarming NAPLAN results showing one third of kids not meeting minimum literacy
01:46and numeracy benchmarks.
01:48Success isn't universal here, but there could still be lessons for the wider school system.
01:55On the other side of the region at Deception Bay, Arathusa College is also working wonders
02:01with many of its students.
02:02We have some young people that are sleeping rough under bridges and in parks at night.
02:08We have young people who haven't been to school for two, three, four, five years.
02:13Come on children, come and eat.
02:15The school supplies all meals and is open 50 weeks a year.
02:19Tomato?
02:20Yes, please.
02:21Such great manners.
02:22Cheese?
02:23For our young people, about 25% of our young people, we are their only source of food or
02:27their main source of food.
02:29Here it's like you can connect with people, like teachers mainly, they don't yell at you.
02:34Year 9 student Jake refused to attend his previous school and arrived at a year 4 level
02:39for maths and English.
02:41I was really behind. I was like behind, behind. I feel more wanted, like you know what I mean?
02:47So let's do the names of the letters first.
02:49A, E, I, O, U.
02:51Awesome.
02:52Year 7 student Liam started high school reading at a year 2 level. He's now at year 5 level.
02:58I couldn't text properly. I couldn't read properly. But now I can.
03:02Did that make it hard to talk to your friends?
03:04Yeah.
03:05Classrooms to celebrate.
03:06Thank you guys. Love you all.