Western Sydney Year 10 student Sophie Mason wants to buck the trend of the latest Council of Australian Governments (COAG) report on education and skills.

COAG's Reform Council .

The outcomes are worse for people from disadvantaged backgrounds, where more than 40 per cent of young people are not earning or learning.

Sophie lives in Ashcroft in western Sydney with her single mother Sherrie, brother Joshua, who is in Year 9, and sister Jasmine, who is in Year 6.

Sherrie has a limited income, so not-for-profit children's charity The Smith Family pays for Sophie's excursions, uniforms, school books and a summer school program.

The charity also supports Joshua and Jasmine.

At Sophie's high school in Ashcroft, going to university is not taken for granted.

"Without sounding cruel, [I want to] leave my current area and go to university," Sophie told AM.

"I hope to one day be a psychologist in either child psychology, adult psychology or forensic psychology.

"Though I do hang out with kids that want to go to university, we look around and there's not a very large number of us and that's, I guess compared to other schools, quite shameful."

Sophie says fellow students want to do vocational courses, but a lot have no higher education ambitions.

"There's a surprising amount who don't wish to do any, who just want to grow up and be parents or just grow up and be on Centrelink," she said.

"It's amazing how often you will see kids that want to be on the Centrelink payment and how unashamed they are."

After going on a school excursion to the University of Sydney, she says her goal is to study there.

"It was kind of like one day, I wish to be here," she said.

"And that was just, that was an amazing excursion and I'm so privileged that I got to go and I was so privileged I could actually pay my way for it."

Sherrie Mason says she just wants her children to receive a good education.

She says the Smith Family's financial aid is vital.

"There is now way we'd be able to make it without them," she said.

"Their support, the services that they supply for the kids, the extracurricular stuff that they give them is absolutely outstanding."

Smith Family chief executive Lisa O'Brien says the report paints a pretty bleak picture of Australia's future.

"In the Smith Family's view, it makes for really concerning reading," Ms O'Brien said.

"We're a long way from closing that gap in educational performance between kids and schools in disadvantaged areas, compared to their more advantaged peers."