"Every term I will stock up on the things that their parents can't buy for them," she says. "I can spend anywhere from $900 to $1800, $2000 a year – depending on the needs of the class. I work with colleagues who spend more.

"We have to get them to engage in learning, yet they can't read write or speak English, they don't eat breakfast, they don't eat lunch, they don't have a school bag or stationery and they certainly don't have any books at home."

Read more: Fight against $1.9 billion school funding cuts to hit Illawarra streets

Ms Wells is far from alone. A national survey has found that 93 per cent of teachers use their own money to purchase supplies for their school or students and 25 per cent of those – mostly primary teachers – spend more than $1000 a year.

Some 78 per cent buy stationery, 76 per cent buy classroom equipment and 44 per cent buy library resources and textbooks, according to the Australian Education Union's State of Our Schools research report.

The 7804 teachers, principals and support staff that responded to the survey were also spending their own money on supporting individual students, sporting equipment and excursions.

Fundraising was considered important to the school budget by 86 per cent of principals nationally and 90 per cent of principals in NSW. About 32 per cent used that money to fund maintenance, a 6 per cent increase on last year.

"The more disadvantaged the area, the more teachers are reliant on making their own purchases," said the AEU's deputy president, and president of the NSW Teachers Federation, Maurie Mulheron.

"We need a massive funding injection to give those kids half a chance." Money spent on other people, such as students, was not tax deductable, he said.

At Ms Wells' school in Fairfield, the principal has earmarked school funds to cover basic stationery, breakfast and lunch for students in need. So Ms Wells provides those extras the other kids have – sharpeners, erasers and coloured pencils.

She buys stools and cushions for students unaccustomed to little plastic chairs. "They are less likely to disengage from something they struggle with if they feel comfortable," she says.

Ms Wells felt frustrated when the federal government recently gave non-government schools a $4.6 billion funding injection without providing any extra for government schools.

"Frustrated is a polite term," she says. "I get furiously angry. A federal policy that allows that to happen is beyond comprehension for me."

Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan said the government was providing record funding to all Australian schools and would honour its commitment to fund 20 per cent of the School Resourcing Standard, with the states expected to fund up to 75 per cent.

“It is not only state schools that look after the most disadvantaged in our society," he said. "Independent and Catholic schools often cater for students who are disengaged from state school education.”