2017 OP results: Southeast Queensland school zips to top spot

A SOUTHEAST Queensland school has delivered the best OP results in the state, with an extraordinary rise from 135th place in the state to first, under a principal who has only been there for one year.

Springfield Anglican College principal Darren Pitt (centre) with (from left) Mackenzie Wilkins, Bonnie Cosgrove, Mitchell Watson, Tiana Hogrefe and Lisa Nguyen. Picture: AAP/John Gass

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AN IPSWICH school has delivered the best OP results in Queensland with an extraordinary rise from 135th place in the state to first in a single year.

More than 64 per cent of the 28 OP students at The Springfield Anglican College received top scores between one and five last year, the highest ratio of any school in Queensland.

Almost 60 per cent of the 246 OP students at the prestigious Brisbane Grammar School, and more than 55 per cent of Brisbane State High School’s 411 OP students scored in the coveted one to five range, placing both schools in the top three in the state.

Darren Pitt took over last year as principal at The Springfield Anglican College, where just 19 per cent of students got OPs in the one to five range in 2016, compared to the 64 per cent of 2017.

“I only arrived at the school last year but we decided, as a senior leadership team, that we really wanted to improve our academic outcomes, and we put a really concerted effort behind that goal,” Mr Pitt said.

“The school has long had a really strong reputation in areas such as sport and creative arts and so on, and academic outcomes in teaching and learning is just where it needed some added focus.”

Mr Pitt and his staff worked hard to make sure the Year 12 students had every opportunity to succeed.

“We provided extra tutoring, we provided them with academic mentors, and we upped the expectation and increased the challenge, and they raised their standards,” he said.

“Basically, we raised the expectations of the teachers, and I’m very lucky I have an excellent teaching staff who are really willing and highly qualified and skilled.

“We had a very willing body of students who had great motivation to do well, so we just provided them with additional opportunities.”

A number of other Queensland schools showed significant improvements in the Queensland Core Skills Test results, including Yeronga State High School, which ranked fifth in the state, with 50 per cent of students receiving OPs from one to five last year, up from 228th with only 14 per cent in 2016.

Tamborine Mountain State High School ranked 14th in 2017 with 40 per cent of OP one to five scores, compared to 265th with 12 per cent in 2016.

Mt St Michael’s College principal Sharon Volp said she was thrilled that 34 per cent of OP students at the Ashgrove school had received scores of one to five.

“Our girls are hardworking, and we work hard to support the goals that they want to achieve, whether it is that academic pathway or whether it is an alternative pathway they want to pursue,” she said.

“At the end of the day, we want them to be safe and be happy at school, and we want them to be leaving here as confident young women who are ready to make their way in the world.”

Education Minister Grace Grace said 96.4 per cent of Year 12 students across Queensland earned a Queensland Certificate of Education or Queensland Certificate of Individual Achievement last year, up from 96.1 per cent in 2016.

“I am very encouraged by the Year 12 outcomes report as it shows that the sustained improvements we have seen in recent years continued last year,” she said.

“There was also an increase in the number of students with an OP 1-15 and those receiving a Vocational Education and Training Certificate Level II or higher.

“Indigenous state school students have also shown sustained improvements, with a strong increase in the number achieving an OP 1-10.”