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High school

This Month

Parents and former Newington College students protest outside the Stanmore campus last year.

Sayers Group the latest beneficiary in Newington co-ed tussle

The Sydney boys school may be winning its battle to admit girls by 2026, but it’s clocked up some expenses doing so.

February

Roughly a third of students across all subjects and year levels are failing to meet NAPLAN proficiency.

How not to waste Gonski school funding

Additional federal money may unfortunately extend and expand inefficient and ineffective practices rather than lift the quality of teaching.

Brook Turner on The Fin podcast

Inside the fight to keep girls out of boys’ schools

This week on The Fin podcast, AFR Magazine contributor Brook Turner on why Sydney has become the epicentre of this battle and whether there is still a place in Australia for single-sex schools.

Sharon Pickering, Ian Narev, Bran Black and Guy Chalkley ahead of the roundtable discussion in Sydney on Friday.

How careers counsellors could help plug the skills gap

Encouraging teenagers to complete high school and giving them access to careers counselling are key to plugging the yawning skills gap.

December 2024

The King’s School has taken the mantle of Australia’s most expensive school.

Private school fees to rise at almost triple the rate of inflation

Prestigious schools have been gradually contacting parents over the past few weeks announcing new fee schedules for 2025. 

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November 2024

Almost half of all year 12 exams in Victoria were affected by a blunder that allowed students to view questions before sitting the test, leading the head of the exam authority to quit.

VCE boss quits after exam paper debacle

Victorian Education Minister Ben Carroll said Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority boss Kylie White resigned over the weekend.

August 2024

A 50pc improvement: Unis turn the tide on disadvantage

The winner of the community engagement category is reversing the fortunes of disadvantaged children in a partnership that has lifted HSC results.

Girls outperform boys in every NAPLAN domain except numeracy.

Boys’ results plummet early in high school

After 10 years of compulsory schooling, about two in five boys are struggling to read and write at a high level. This is a big problem for the nation.

July 2024

Some students say they want to protect their mental health by avoiding the stress of exams.

Stressed teens would rather finish school with no ATAR than sit exams

Students at co-educational schools reported the highest scores on emotional and mental wellbeing, and girls-only school students the lowest.

June 2024

PhD student Dan McDougall decided public relations was not for him.

Higher education key to bigger pay, Labor MP argues

When it comes to the relationship between education and earning capacity, research suggests more is better.

March 2024

Jasmine Werneburg says doing the international baccalaureate was more academically rigorous than her university degree.

Poor kids who choose the IB do better than rich kids who don’t: study

Jasmine Werneberg says the International Baccalaureate she did at high school was more academically rigorous than her business-law degree at university.

Cindy Nguyen, 19, says high quality careers advice turned her on to mechanical engineering as her future career.

Study shows why kids drop out of school

Schools need to respond to early warning signs and provide individualised support if high school dropout rates are to be averted, a study says.

Our most and least educated politicians, in six charts

We analysed the educational backgrounds of all 226 federal politicians in Australia – and found they aren’t particularly representative of the broader population.

Too many children are treading water in schools that struggle to improve academic performance.

How ‘families’ of schools could spread educational success

Instead of hoping “superhero” principals can lift schools that fall short, a network bound together through a united executive team can increase the odds of improvement.

Well-heeled schools have much better access to resources, but ChatGPT could help level the playing field for poorer schools if used properly, experts say.

Private school parents save the education system $4.6b a year: study

A new analysis calculates that governments spend $4.6 billion less each year than they would if all students were enrolled in public schools.

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Jason Clare and Mary O’Kane launching the universities accord.

Have we just laid out a plan to kill the traditional university?

The universities accord says that the number of university students needs to double by 2050. That raises the question of what we actually want from our universities.

February 2024

Sarah Lowe, principal at St Matthew’s Primary in Canberra, with year 4 student Camilla Larobina.
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Science supports rote learning in schools: report

A push to return classrooms to explicit instruction, phonics and rote learning is based on the science of learning.

Australia needs a massive systemwide approach to boosting reading ability for all students.

One in three Aussie kids can’t read this headline: Grattan

Schools need to transform the way they teach reading so that fewer children get left behind, think tank report says.

Australia is among the worst in the world when it comes to classroom discipline.

Disruptive kids are on the rise in Australia’s classrooms

But a Senate report into disruptive classroom behaviour has only one recommendation - to create another inquiry into the matter.

January 2024

Fees make up only half of the cost of education costs in independent schools.

School fees paid? Then double your budget

Rising school fees are heaping stress on household budgets. And then there’s the extra cost of uniforms, sports gear, music lessons and camps.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/high-school-5y8