Queensland schools celebrate after students achieve record-breaking OP results in 2019
Many major schools in Brisbane and across Queensland have raised the bar yet again after their students achieved record-breaking OP results. SEE THE RESULTS
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RECORD-BREAKING OP results were being heralded across the state yesterday as thousands of ambitious youngsters now await university offers.
The Sunday-Mail can today reveal the first snapshot of how many of our major schools performed, with more than 18,000 Year 12 students receiving their highly-anticipated results.
Almost a fifth of students at St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School (SAAGS) in Brisbane’s south scored an OP 1.
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And the school recorded its highest-ever percentage of OP 1-5’s – reaching 55 per cent.
Principal Toni Riordan said the results were exceptional.
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“Our consistently excellent outcomes, with an average of over 46 per cent OP 1-5 for the last five years, point to the high-quality education St Aidan’s delivers,” she said.
More than 52 per cent of students at Brisbane Girls Grammar School (BGGS) received an OP 1-5.
This smashed the state average of 23 per cent.
St Luke’s Anglican School’s OP 1-5 results were also the best in the history of the Bundaberg school, reaching 35.7 per cent.
There were 535 OP 1s received across Queensland while more than 15,000 received an OP 15 or higher.
Stephanie Fanshawe, 17, who attended SAAGS scored an OP 1.
The teen said she was up at midnight, hitting the refresh button to check her result online.
“I’m very happy with that, I don’t think it gets better,” she said.
Stephanie said she was hoping to get into medicine at Griffith University.
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SAAGS student Rebecca Chae also received an OP 1.
The 17-year-old, who stayed up to check her score with her friend and her parents, said she was hoping to study veterinary science at the University of Queensland.
“It (Year 12) was quite stressful but I think at the end of the year, it became less stressful,” she said.
For all schools, 2019 will be the final time graduates receive an OP.
Instead, Year 12 students will now receive an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR), in the biggest shake-up to the Queensland system since the OP was introduced in 1992.
BGGS principal Jacinda Euler said she was “very proud” of the school’s results, noting more than 18 per cent of students had achieved either an OP 1 or 2 over the past decade.
“As a non-selective school where 100 per cent of our students are OP eligible, this is a strong statistic,” she said.
BGGS student Claire Fidler, who scored an OP 1, said she was hoping to study a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne, majoring in economics and international political studies next year.
“It was a very exciting year, I had a lot of fun of course but studied hard as well,” she said.
Ms Euler said the school had been preparing for the move to ATAR since it was first announced in 2015, and said it offered Queensland a “reset”.
Some schools, including St Peters Lutheran College, will receive further results early next year for students who undertook the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme as an alternative to OP.
Education Minister Grace Grace yesterday congratulated the cohort and welcomed the change of the new ATAR system.
“It’s exciting, we’re starting the new ATAR and the QCAA have done an amazing job not only preparing teachers and school leaders but students and parents and all of those involved in the new ATAR systems for next year,” she said.
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