By Lucy Carroll
The principal at Ashfield Boys High is often asked how his comprehensive state school has achieved results that have helped catapult it up the HSC rankings over the past decade.
“People want that lever, that magic solution or a silver bullet behind school success. But when I step back, it’s really been about building an entire school culture. And many things go into that,” explains the school’s head, Dwayne Hopwood.
About 50 per cent of Ashfield Boys students scored band 5 and 6 results in last year’s HSC, climbing from 42 per cent in 2017. More than 80 per cent of students scored in the top 3 bands in their final exams last year.
Ashfield Boys High School has been named among the top 24 most improved schools from 2017-2024.Credit: Nick Moir
“We’re not a selective school – we take allcomers. It’s about helping every one of the kids reach the potential that we know they can get to. This is not an endpoint for us,” he says.
Ashfield Boys is one of 24 public high schools identified in a major NSW Education Department analysis as showing the most improved HSC results over eight years.
The department examined HSC results from 2017 to 2024 to identify schools with the biggest improvement in the proportion of students achieving band 4, 5 and 6 results.
The Herald’s annual school league tables are based on results only for students achieving band 6, or marks over 90. This analysis captures student improvement across all top 3 bands.
At Ashfield Boys, Hopwood has spearheaded countless programs that have contributed to the school rising more than 300 places in the HSC rankings since 2016.
There is a dedicated study centre and coaching for HSC students, a reading program from year 7 and explicit teaching across all subjects. Mobile phones are held in lockers in home rooms and laptops are kept to a minimum.
Year 7 and 8 students are divided into teams and kept together with the same teachers over two years to help track their progress and reduce anxiety in starting high school. This approach was highlighted in Steve Biddulph’s influential book Raising Boys, which noted “the closer the relationship between the teacher and the student, the more effective the learning”.
This year, the school launched a numeracy program which tests year 7 students on maths ability when they start. Teachers now run tailored lessons to address gaps in core topics such as fractions and geometry.
“It might seem old-fashioned but all these factors that have contributed to culture of improvement that leads to success,” Hopwood says. “What is rarely reported on is our absolute decline in bottom band results. We had 124 students sit the HSC last year and only four band 1s.”
At Cumberland High School in the city’s north-west, the proportion of students achieving band 5 and 6 results has grown from 29 per cent in 2017 to 41 per cent last year.
More than 80 per cent scored band 4, 5 and 6 results last year, surging from 58 per cent.
Cumberland High principal Luke Fulwood says over the past five years, teachers have zeroed in on lifting students in the middle bands into band 5s and 6s. “It’s something that we’ve been working hard on. And we regularly report on the top two bands rather than just band 6.”
Cumberland High School has lifted band 5 and 6 results from 30 to 41.5 per cent.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers
“We have standalone literacy lessons twice a fortnight for year 8 students which involves breaking down paragraph and essay structure and comprehension,” Fulwood explains.
“Teachers are also absolute experts in making sure their lessons are clearly identified to syllabus outcomes. The students know exactly what they are learning in each lesson.”
At Dulwich High School of Visual Arts and Design, the proportion of students achieving bands 5 and 6 soared to 50 per cent last year, up from 25 per cent in 2018.
The school, which has a specialised selective creative arts stream, adopted explicit teaching across all subjects about three years ago, relieving principal Josh O’Neill says.
Students at Dulwich Hill High School of Visual Arts and Design.Credit: Wolter Peeters
“It means teachers clearly explain what will be taught in a lesson and the outcomes expected at the end. Right now, we’re looking at the effective use of detailed feedback and high expectations,” he says.
“One of the things that makes us different is that we run interest electives including painting, printmaking, cartooning, animation, philosophy. We put a focus on valuing students’ talents and abilities that fall a little bit left of centre.
“We’ve also done a huge body of work on explicit teaching for year 11 and 12 writing and teacher professional learning that has helped lift results.”
A similar approach has been embraced at Jannali High, where teachers regularly observe and report on each other’s instruction methods and techniques.
Students at Jannali High School.Credit: Edwina Pickles
The school’s band 5 and 6 results have grown from 22 per cent in 2018 to almost 38 per cent last year. Just over 78 per cent of students scored in the top 3 bands last year.
Principal Rick Coleman says the school has focused heavily on teacher quality. “We’ve seen a shift in our demographic and now more than half of our staff are early career teachers. We have a strong staff induction program and mentoring with more experienced teachers,” he says.
The school has adopted the Quality Teaching Round program, which involves teachers critiquing each other’s lessons, and there is a specialised HSC teacher training program in which experienced exam markers share strategies for lifting results.
Principal at Sarah Redfern High School in Minto, Lyndy Clowry, with senior students.Credit: Jessica Hromas
At Sarah Redfern High School in the city’s south-west, 52 per cent of students achieved in the top 3 bands last year, a rise of 23 percentage points since 2018.
Principal Lyndy Clowry, who has led the school for eight years, says teachers run in-depth analysis to track results and patterns. “That is sent back to faculty staff so they understand what is working really well and what can we do differently.”
Since 2019, the school has run dedicated explicit literacy and numeracy lessons twice a week in junior years. The school scored above-average NAPLAN results in most domains last year, when compared to students with a similar background. “That program has really helped build capacity for students to meet the challenge in their final years.”
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