Top SA public schools outperforming many big private schools, according to Better Education

Top public schools in SA are outperforming many big private schools, according to new analysis. Did your school make the grade? See the list.

The best performing high schools in South Australia have been named in new rankings which show both large ‘super schools’ and tiny campuses are achieving top results.

The state’s largest public school, Glenunga International High School, shares top spot with prestigious private institutions Pembroke School and St Peter’s Collegiate Girls School.

All three scored a maximum 100 points in the 2022 analysis of academic outcomes by Better Education.

There are 10 public schools among the 45 campuses listed, alongside private schools which charge as much as $29,400 for Year 12 tuition.

Large campuses such as Glenunga (about 2250 students), Adelaide High School (about 1840) and Brighton Secondary School (about 1760) are named alongside small sites including The Hills Montessori School (about 170) and Southern Montessori at O’Sullivan Beach (about 200).

The smallest is an Adelaide-based campus of the international One School Global, with about 80 students enrolled at Aberfoyle Park.

The Better Education website states it is run independently and analyses data provided by schools to generate “informative and comparative school results, including school rankings or ratings and lists of best performing schools, to parents wanting to make ­choices about schooling for their children”.

It has been operating since 2008 and gives schools a score of between 60 and 100 based on factors including performance in English and mathematics.

Every school in the top 45 scored at least 90 out of 100.

Better Education has also ranked 10 schools which provided university entrance score data for Year 12 students.

Wilderness School in Medindie is listed as having the highest median Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) score of 95.05.

In tenth spot was Pedare Christian College at Golden Grove with a median score of 83.3.

Not all schools make this data available.

Flinders University education analyst Andrew Bills said Better Education used data from the federal MySchool website and “its own undisclosed algorithms” to rank schools and relied on advertising and subscriptions for funding.

Dr Bills said the rankings were “based only on what can be easily measured – numbers – but a good school is much more than a number”.

Such rankings did not take into account important skills and traits like team work, problem solving, creativity, critical thinking or empathy, he said.

The Better Education rankings also reveal “an unequal playing field” in the state’s education system, he said, where “schools located in the wealthier postcodes of Adelaide are the schools ranking near the top”.

The Heights School Year 12 students Yashwanth Gunasheelan, Vatsal Thakkar, Alex Benny and Bang Ong say “passionate” teachers help them achieve top academic results. Picture: Kelly Barnes

One school to buck that trend is The Heights School in Modbury.

It has a lower socio-economic score (SES) for its 1770-odd students compared to higher scores for most of the top ranked schools.

However, deputy principal Val Westwell said the inclusion of The Heights and other state schools in the rankings showed “students in public education can achieve anything that a child in any other system can achieve”.

“When the narrative is ‘our kids can do anything, our kids can achieve, how are we going to get them over the line? … I think that influences outcomes through to the kids,” she said.

“We have a school community who, by and large value education.

“The message is out there in our community that … kids are happy here and it’s a good place to learn.”

Year 12 students Yashwanth Gunasheelan, Vatsal Thakkar, Alex Benny and Bang Ong credit the “passionate” teachers and “school environment” with helping them achieve.

Vatsal, 17, does not live in the school zone for The Heights but enrolled through its Ignite program for gifted and talented students, which he said had a reputation that spread by “word of mouth” among parents.

Alex, also 17, said teachers “push us as much as possible so we can problem solve”.

“Students feel more comfortable doing those difficult subjects because, even if they struggle, the teachers are there to help,” he said.

Education Minister Blair Boyer. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Morgan Sette

Opposition education spokesman John Gardner. Picture: MATT LOXTON

Education Minister Blair Boyer said The Heights School had received, under the former Labor state government, a $3.5m investment in a STEM lab and $10m for a new gymnasium and classrooms.

“The Heights, in particular, is a great example of what we mean when we say ‘make every school a great school’,” he said.

“Particularly given it’s in a lower socio-economic area, it has now become a school of choice across the state, which is exactly what we want to see.

“The public school system has many examples of incredible school communities and I’m not surprised to see Glenunga High School at the top of the list again.”

Opposition education spokesman John Gardner said all of the schools ranked by Better Education “are excellent schools, as are many schools that aren’t (listed)”.

“While it can be notoriously difficult to reasonably compare school achievements, given the different contexts in which they operate, it is always worth celebrating achievement in our schools,” he said.

Better Education’s website does not provide direct contact details and The Advertiser received no response to attempts to contact the organisation via its online inquiry system.