(1)   Further to the answer to question No. 727 (Hansard, 23 May 2005, page 141), does a school’s Socio-Economic Status (SES) score represent an average socioeconomic profile of the districts from which that school’s students are drawn; if not, why not.

(2)   Do students drawn from wealthier families in a poor district contribute to their school being awarded a lower SES score and hence a higher recurrent grant than if the score were based on their own family’s circumstances; if not, why not.

(3)   Is the SES methodology a potentially misleading indicator of a school’s educational need; if not, why not.

(1)   Yes. A school’s socio-economic status (SES) score represents an average socio-economic profile of the census collection districts from which that non-government school’s students are drawn.

(2)   A non-government school’s SES score is calculated using the average socio-economic profile of the census collection districts from which that school’s students are drawn. The SES model does not measure the wealth of any individual family. Both high and low income families contribute to the SES scores of the census collection districts in which they reside. The SES model ranks each school relative to other schools based on the SES of each school’s community.

(3)   The specific objective for the General Recurrent Grants Programme is to help non-government schools with the recurrent costs of school education so that they can offer students educational programmes directed towards the achievement of the Australian Government’s priorities for schooling. The level of General Recurrent Funding provided to a non-government school is based on the school’s SES score. The SES index that is used to calculate a non-government school’s SES score measures the income, education and occupation levels of all residents within the census collection districts from which a school draws its students. The SES approach ranks non-government school communities relative to each other and is based on Australian Bureau of Statistics Census data that are consistent for all schools.