VCE 2018: Best and most improved median study scores

Schools with the top VCE classes for 2018 have been revealed — and it’s not all about how much you spend, with one public school grabbing the title of most improved, beating some of Melbourne’s most elite campuses. SEE THE TOP PERFORMERS.

Best schools for VCE in Victoria 2018.

Schools with the top VCE classes for 2018 have been revealed as a private college takes out the number one spot.

Median VCE study scores have today been released, with coeducational Jewish school Bialik College named the outright winner scoring a 38 out of a possible 50.

More than 40 per cent of all its students’ study scores were 40 or above.

VCE RESULTS FOR 2018 AND TIPS FOR LOW ATARS

SEARCH THE VCE TOP SCORERS LIST OF 20,000 NAMES

Bialik principal Jeremy Stowe-Lindner said his students’ results were “pretty humbling, really”, with the school striving to set students up for a future rather than focus on scores.

“The actual ATAR and study score is secondary to what the student wants to do,” the principal in Hawthorn East said.

“Our highest achievers aren’t locked away in a room studying, they do a balance of things like sports and leadership roles.”

Select-entry boys’ state school Melbourne High took second place with a median score of 37 and more than one third of its study scores earning a 40 and above.

While figures released in the past week showed the schools with the greatest number of students earning perfect ATARs of 99.95 and perfect study scores of 50, the latest data includes the entire VCE cohort’s results, offering a more rounded picture.

SCHOOLS WITH PERFECT STUDY SCORES FOR VCE 2018

TEACHERS GO THE EXTRA MILE FOR ATAR AVERAGE

Girls’ schools dominated the top 25 list, with more than half of the most successful schools being female only private and select entry schools.

Of the top 25, a further nine of the best performing VCE classes were from co-ed schools — including government schools Apollo Bay and Nossal High — and the final three were boys-only schools.

Nossal High School in Berwick. Picture: Andrew Batsch

Coastal public campus Apollo Bay P-12 and its 14 VCE students pulled off a miraculous feat.

Not only did they beat the results of some of metropolitan Melbourne’s elite schools, it was also equal first as the most improved — its median study score rose four points to 36 in a single year.

PENINSULA GRAMMAR TEACHES WRONG VCE COURSE

Principal Tiffany Holt said: “I don’t think it’s about how much you pay for your child to go to school.”

“Even though we’re rural and remote — we’re very remote, three and a half hours to Melbourne — what our kids have access to down here in terms of lifestyle and balance, that far exceeds that of metro areas,” she said.

Ms Holt said when teachers noticed students were stressed, they went for a surf, went paintballing, went for hikes and even had their resident Year 12 band throw an impromptu concert.

“Often we’ll get the band out at lunch time and have a bit of a jam,” she said.

“Balance is one of our school’s values — it’s not all about head down in the books.”

MORE EDUCATION NEWS

MOST IMPROVED

Scoresby Secondary’s class of 2018 was falling behind the national standard in NAPLAN results just three years ago.

But the public school in Melbourne’s south east is today celebrating a huge turnaround, named among the most improved schools in the state for VCE results.

It’s median study score climbed four points in a year, while it also claimed scores of 40+ when last year it had none.

When principal Gail Major arrived at the school in 2015 — the same year as the class’s low NAPLAN results — she knew she had to lift the students’ confidence.

“The kids had no belief in what they could do, so we would tell them, ‘Don’t say you can’t’.”

It became a mantra of sorts for the 2018 class, and one that motivated student Ben Dowler through his senior studies.

The 18-year-old lost his father, uncle and pop in the past two years.

“I tried to do them proud as much as I could,” he said.

“I’m hoping to go to uni next year and get into health sciences, maybe social work to help others through what I went through.”

Students took surveys to give feedback to teachers on how they could better run classes.

All 35 Year 12 students even stayed overnight at Melbourne University at the start of the year to envisage themselves sleeping in the dorms and eating in the halls of one of Victoria’s top institutions.

“I think it’s amazing,” Mrs Major said.

“The growth is not just in the students but in the teachers — they’ve gone the journey with them.”

Other schools that showed an improved median score of four points for the year were Numurkah Secondary, St Thomas Aquinas in Tynong and Apollo Bay P-12.

TOP 25s

BEST VICTORIAN SCHOOLS

Median study score / % of 40+ scores

Bialik College, Hawthorn East — 38 / 40.2%

Melbourne High, South Yarra — 37 / 34.2%

Huntingtower School, Mount Waverley — 37 / 33.9%

Mac.Robertson Girls’, Melbourne — 37 / 32.5%

Ruyton Girls’ School, Kew — 37 / 29.9%

Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Burwood — 36 / 31.7%

St Kevin’s College, Toorak — 36 / 30.2%

Haileybury Girls, Keysborough — 36 / 30.1%

Fintona Girls, Balwyn — 36 / 29.8%

Mount Scopus Memorial College, Burwood — 36 / 29.1%

Camberwell Anglican Girls, Canterbury — 36 / 27.6%

Ballarat Clarendon College, Ballarat — 36 / 27.5%

Korowa Anglican Girls’, Glen Iris — 36 / 27.5%

Melbourne Grammar, Melbourne — 36 / 27.5%

Loreto Mandeville Hall, Toorak — 36 / 26.7%

Sacre Coeur, Glen Iris — 36 / 26.5%

Methodist Ladies College, Kew — 36 / 26%

Apollo Bay P-12 College, Apollo Bay — 36 / 21.4%

Lauriston Girls, Armadale — 35 / 26.2%

Nossal High, Berwick — 35 / 26.1%

Melbourne Girls Grammar, South Yarra — 35 / 25.1%

Strathcona Baptist Girls, Canterbury — 35 / 24.6%

Penleigh & Essendon Grammar, Keilor East — 35 / 24.3%

Caulfield Grammar, Wheelers Hill — 35 / 24%

Haileybury College, Keysborough — 35 / 23.5%

BEST GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS

Median study score / % of 40+ scores

Melbourne High, South Yarra — 37 / 34.2%

Mac.Robertson Girls’, Melbourne — 37 / 32.5%

Apollo Bay P-12 College, Apollo Bay — 36 / 21.4%

Nossal High, Berwick — 35 / 26.1%

Balwyn High, Balwyn North — 34 / 19.3%

Suzanne Cory High, Werribee — 34 / 18.3%

McKinnon Secondary, McKinnon — 34 / 17.8%

Box Hill High, Box Hill — 34 / 16.1%

John Monash Science School, Clayton — 34 / 14.7%

Victorian College of the Arts, Southbank — 33 / 16.1%

Glen Waverley Secondary, Glen Waverley — 33 / 15%

University High, Parkville — 33 / 14.9

Murrayville Community College, Murrayville — 33 / 4.8%

Princes Hill Secondary, Princes Hill — 32 / 13.8%

Frankston High, Frankston — 32 / 11.8%

Casterton Secondary, Casterton — 32 / 11.5%

Canterbury Girls Secondary — 32 / 11.2%

Narre Warren South P-12, Narre Warren South — 32 / 10.7%

Koonung Secondary, Mont Albert North — 32 / 10.8%

Viewbank College, Rosanna — 32 / 10.4%

Williamstown High, Williamstown — 32 / 9.1%

East Doncaster Secondary, Doncaster East — 32 / 9%

Camberwell High, Canterbury — 32 / 8%

Mentone Girls’ Secondary, Mentone — 31 / 11.1%

Buckley Park College, Essendon — 31 / 10%

Kew High, Kew East — 31 / 10%

MOST IMPROVED SINCE 2017

Median study score / % of 40+ scores

(Up four median study score points)

Apollo Bay P-12 College, Apollo Bay — 36 / 21.4%

St Thomas Aquinas College, Tynong — 32 / 8.6%

Numurkah Secondary College, Numurkah — 27 / 2.9%

Scoresby Secondary College, Scoresby — 28 / 1.6%

Up three median study score points

Mallacoota P-12 College, Mallacoota — 30 / 12.5%

Auburn High, Hawthorn East — 30 / 8.6

Korumburra Secondary College, Korumburra — 27 / 5.5%

Mordialloc College, Mordialloc — 30 / 9.8%

Al Siraat College, Epping — 28 / 5.4%

Wycheproof P-12 College, Wycheproof — 31 / 2.9%

St Mary of the Angels School, Nathalia — 30 / 4.2%

Casey Grammar School, Cranbourne — 30 / 4.6%

The Grange P-12 College, Hoppers Crossing — 28 / 3.2%

Hume Central Secondary College, Broadmeadows — 26 / 3.6%

Bright P-12 College, Bright — 30 / 4%

Heritage College, Officer — 29 / 3.2%

St John’s Greek Orthodox College, Preston — 29 / 4.3%

Lowanna College, Newborough — 25 / 0.4%

Ballarat Secondary — Mount Rowan, Wendouree — 26 / 0

Lavers Hill K-12 College, Lavers Hill — 29 / 0%

Newcombe Secondary, Newcomb — 27 / 0%

North Melbourne Grammar College, North Melbourne — 25 / 0%

Sydney Road Community School, Brunswick — 26 / 0%

Highview Christian Community College, Maryborough — 30 / 3.8%

Mooroopna Secondary College, Mooroopna: 26 / 0%

@ashargoon