Churchie in damage control after ‘non-performer’ students ‘pressured’ to skip QCS test

An elite private school has come under fire after “low-performing” Year 12 students were pressured by a fellow student to skip this year’s QCS test.

ELITE private school Anglican Church Grammar is embroiled in a scandal around next week’s Queensland Core Skills test, after lower-performing students were pressured to stay home to boost results.

A document understood to have been written and distributed by a senior student at the inner-Brisbane GPS school targeted peers who had not attended an optional QCS tutoring program.

Parents have suggested the impetus for the offensive missive came from teachers keen to lift the QCS outcome.

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Test scores contribute to a shared cohort result which is used to provide scaling and directly impacts overall position (OP) results.

Some Anglican Church Grammar School parents have slammed the “stay-away” request as unethical, discriminatory and against the values he school espouses. Picture: Steve Pohlner

One member of the school community described the situation as “appalling”.

Parents have slammed the “stay-away” request as unethical, discriminatory and against the values espoused by the college of turning out well-rounded gentlemen.

One mother said boys had been put under “enormous pressure in a negative way”, and those who skipped extra QCS tutoring were humiliated and called “OP thieves”.

All declined to be named due to fears their children would be further pressured during an already tense time in the academic calendar.

Churchie headmaster Alan Campbell condemned the circulation of the “unauthorised document”.

Dr Campbell said he had no clear evidence of the document’s origins, and Year 12 students were informed that he did not “endorse its contents or its approach”.

Churchie headmaster Dr Alan Campbell has condemned the circulation of a document containing a list of students, inferring they should be pressured into skipping the QCS test.

Churchie is not the first school to be accused of oppressive behaviour against lower performing students ahead of the QCS test.

It is believed to be a widespread practice at several GPS private schools to try to unduly influence QCS outcomes to boost OP results, and in turn, enrolment numbers and fees.

Students who don’t sit the QCS test cannot receive an OP score, however they can apply to QTAC for a selection rank to allow them to apply for university.

In 2018, almost 1700 Queensland students who would have been otherwise eligible for an OP did not sit the test for unknown reasons – a number which has been steadily rising since 2012.