There are schools, and then there are schools. And then there is James Ruse Agricultural High School.
Its former students include doctors, lawyers, at least one self-made billionaire, and a Booker Prize winner.
Matt Dopierala took over as principal of James Ruse Agricultural High School late last year. The school is held up as the jewel in the crown of public education.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers
For 27 years, the selective school reigned at the top of HSC league tables until 2023, when it was dethroned by North Sydney Boys. Now, its new principal, Matt Dopierala, says he is sure Ruse will regain the title. “I don’t have much doubt at all that that’s within reach,” he says.
“It’s definitely a nice-to-have, and it’s something I’m sure is going to happen. I would hope that would happen in the short term rather than the long term.”
The parents want it too, Dopierala says, but he’s been clear there is only one way to achieve it. “This is about us working together; we’re all wanting the same thing, and that’s the best results possible.”
The new head speaks to the Herald from the principal’s office, which is located in an original 1800s homestead on the school site. The school’s namesake, convict James Ruse, who was the first to grow corn on farmland at Rose Hill, still looms large – a somewhat macabre full-size replica of his tombstone, parts of which Ruse carved himself, sits just outside the front office.
Despite the school now being surrounded by suburbia and known as an academic powerhouse, it maintains its agricultural focus (there’s a chicken coop, ducks, goats, cows and a bull). Dopierala says it is important the school offers more than academics.
“While our students come with a real strength in the intellectual domain, their social, emotional development is really, really important,” he says.
Dopierala is James Ruse’s ninth principal. He went to Picnic Point High School, where he was good at maths and physics. He was good at woodwork too, and enjoyed assisting other students, so much so his teacher encouraged him to pursue a career in education. Teaching was also in his blood.
“My grandmother was a teacher [and] an assistant principal in primary school, at a time when I think female leadership wasn’t often seen, and she was a great teacher, and I guess, a real matriarch for the family.”
Year 12 James Ruse students in 1985.Credit: Antonin Cermak
He taught at Holroyd High and other schools in south-west Sydney before stints in selective schools, including at Fort Street in the inner west and as deputy principal at North Sydney Boys.
James Ruse has been described as the jewel in the crown of public education, an “easy place to be a nerd”, and has a list of powerful alumni, but recently, it has struggled with actually getting the very top students to accept an enrolment offer, with some students choosing private school scholarships instead.
Dopierala, perhaps unsurprisingly, thinks those students, who might have been a big fish in a small pond intellectually, have a lot to gain from Ruse.
“Parents will make decisions around what’s being offered. We’re a public education system, and so there’ll be differences in what facilities and things people can offer,” he says.
“I think that capitalising on that gift or that ability is going to be much more likely to be enhanced through being around those like-minded people.”
James Ruse students Warren Song, Yutong Duan and Julia Zheng all received 99.95 ATARs last year.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
Many students get tutoring ahead of the selective school test, and at Ruse, Dopierala estimates that those who aren’t tutored are in the minority – but acknowledges tutoring may help them feel “prepared” for more learning at school.
“I think it can be useful and helpful. But of course, there’s going to be a tipping point where the hours outside of school are so full of engagement in other things that may mean that there’s not enough focus on the actual schoolwork.”
“But my message first and foremost is that the students should be participating fully in the lessons in the school, and people will make their own choices around what they do outside of school, but we have a very, very strong teaching staff.”
So how exactly is James Ruse going to regain its top spot? Teachers are the experts in HSC marking, teaching and preparation. But Dopierala has had meetings with the school captains, and his message is clear: collaborating to lift the entire cohort’s performance is key.
“They need to bring those students up with them, and so encourage the work in study groups,” he says.
“We have students lecturing and teaching other students at lunchtimes and after school, asking for spaces. If they can just help one friend lift a little higher, they’re all going to be rewarded in the end by sharing in that success.”
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