How Cranbourne East Secondary became one of our most improved schools for VCE
A school in Melbourne’s south east is celebrating its highest ever median study score after coming up with an unusual plan to boost its VCE results.
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A study skills camp helped Cranbourne East Secondary boost its VCE class results to become among the most improved in the state.
The school in Melbourne’s south east took its Year 12s on a two-day trip at the start of the year.
“We try to get everyone there,” principal Mandee Strickland said.
“We have sessions during the day on what effective study looks like and people come in and talk to the kids about wellbeing.”
And it’s worked.
The school is celebrating its highest ever median study score of 30 — the magic middle number that puts pupils at the centre of the VCE cohort.
“We are absolutely elated with those results,” Mrs Strickland said.
The school, which opened in 2011, had its first Year 12 cohort in 2016, securing a median study score of 27.
Back then, staff set a vision to achieve a target of 30 within five years, and every year since it’s beaten its previous score by a point.
Today’s results show they reached their goal a year before they hoped.
“Each year we raised the bar and the kids met it,” Mrs Strickland said.
“Kids will go to the expectations that you present to them — if you have low expectations for kids that’s what they’ll meet.
“But the teachers believed the students would succeed — they took extra classes before and after school.”
She said the results “give our students choices” — much like for Dux Jayden Hall, who will be the first person in his family to go to university.
The 17-year-old, who achieved an ATAR of 97.4, became a quasi teacher for his classmates, pulling out a whiteboard to instruct them during spare periods and breaks.
“Teaching has always been my backup,” said Jayden, who hopes to be a prosecutor after studying law and criminology at Monash.
It may have been just the thing to boost his presenting skills, which he said could one day be integral in a courtroom.
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“I guess it did help me too but I just wanted my friends to succeed as well,” he said.
Other Melbourne schools that showed extraordinary improvement over five years were Thomastown Secondary, up four median study score points, Hampton Park Secondary, up three points, and Monterey Secondary, also up three points.
But regional and rural schools showed the greatest rises in that time, including Mallacoota P-12, up 11 points, East Loddon P-12, up six points, and Maryborough Education Centre, up five points.
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MOST IMPROVED MEDIAN STUDY SCORE SCHOOLS
METRO
Cranbourne East Secondary — 2015: 26* 2019: 30
Thomastown Secondary — 2015: 23 2019: 27
Hampton Park Secondary — 2015: 24 2019: 27
Monterey Secondary — 2015: 22 2019: 25
Koonung Secondary — 2015: 31 2019: 33
RURAL/REGIONAL
Mallacoota P-12 — 2015: 27 2019: 38
East Loddon P-12 — 2015: 28 2019: 34
Maryborough Education Centre — 2015: 23 2019: 28
Korumburra Secondary — 2015: 26 2019: 29
Broadford Secondary — 2015: 26 2019: 28
*Year 11 students who took Year 12 subjects