By Lucy Carroll, Nigel Gladstone and Syed Ahmad
Fairvale High principal Kathleen Seto says myriad factors have contributed to her students’ success in HSC mathematics during her 16 years at the south-western Sydney school.
“One thing our teachers always do, though, is forensically look at data and results after assessment tasks. We pick up the gaps and if students haven’t got a concept we remedy that by explicitly teaching it, and develop worksheets to help them grasp it,” Seto says.
Fairvale High School principal Kathleen Seto.
From 2020 to 2022, the school has achieved an average HSC score of 81 or above in advanced maths and maths extension 1. The 1400-pupil school in Fairfield West was announced as one of the public system’s first ambassador schools in 2021 and has scored above average in multiple subjects.
More than 90 per cent of students come from a language background other than English, she says, and 10 per cent are refugees. “Our school’s breakfast club feeds more than 100 students every day,” Seto says.
“It’s never one thing that leads to good results. In maths, the kids are really engaged in the subject, and we have a big emphasis on numeracy. But we aren’t doing anything magical.”
The school’s head maths teacher, Steve Barbuto – who has taught the subject for 40 years - works with learning support staff to “make sure the kids are in the right maths course, and they have counselling and mentoring in the years leading up to the HSC. We also have predictable routines, and put focus on classroom management,” she says.
The school also ranked among the top 20 comprehensive schools for visual arts in 2022 with an average score of 84. “We are always encouraging the students to enter art competitions,” she says.
Fairvale High is one of many NSW public high schools achieving strong average scores across a range of subjects, according to a new Herald analysis that examines scores over the past three years.
The analysis, from data published in most public schools’ annual reports, shows some schools are achieving consistently strong results across their whole student cohort, rather than just the top band 6 achievers. Most non-government schools do not report averages and are not included in this analysis.
In the north
More than 40 kilometres away, at Killarney Heights High in the city’s north, principal Hayley Emmerton says a relentless focus on improving students’ writing skills has contributed to sky-high marks in HSC English and legal studies.
“Teachers have put a huge emphasis on writing in subjects including economics, legal and business studies. The secret is explicitly teaching kids to write complex sentences, how to structure a paragraph and having assessments include an extended writing piece,” she says.
From 2020 to 2022, the school recorded an average HSC score in legal studies of 85.4, and an average score of 89 in advanced English.
Killarney Heights High School students Kimi Wong, Maya Le Boursicot, and Willow Salgo with principal Hayley Emmerton.Credit: Janie Barrett
“It starts with the mechanics of sentence construction. We also give teachers one hour of professional learning a week and train them in how to teach writing,” Emmerton says. “High school teachers are experts in their fields, but often haven’t been taught [at university] how to teach writing.”
Outside Sydney
At Lambton High, in suburban Newcastle, year 12 students perform consistently well in legal studies, business studies, advanced English and advanced maths.
Relieving principal Darren Mitten says the school has “a labour-intensive feedback process” for all year 11 and 12 students.
“Students and teachers sit down to go through their assessment results against marking criteria. Students also give feedback to us,” he says.
“About 20 of our teachers are HSC markers, and we also have set up a senior learning centre where staff help students during their free periods.”
Year 12 students at Lambton High Michael Scott, Jessamy Sewell and Ryan Robinson.Credit: Peter Stoop
A ‘true comprehensive experience’
At St Ives High, principal Mark Watson, who retired last term after 13 years in the role, says while the school has reported consistently high scores in physics and chemistry, the school is heavily focused on giving students “a true comprehensive school experience with extracurricular activities, and a focus on sport and visual arts”.
“When I talk to my parent body I tell them only looking at band 6s when HSC results come out is a crude measure. High-performing students should be celebrated, but that’s only measuring top kids,” he says. “A better measure is to look at the average result of a subject. We are trying to lift results in all subjects.”
He credits the school’s relieving head science teacher, Tim Smith, and teachers in the faculty for improving scores. “We celebrate good results, we have recognition morning teas for students and we run a gifted and talented program. We try our hardest to hang on to kids who might go onto a selective school by saying we can offer something similar, but we can also offer more because we are comprehensive,” he says.
The data contained in this analysis was originally collated by year 12 student Syed Ahmad, who researched HSC performance at schools and across all subjects. His work is published at hscscalinggraphs.au/rankingsearch
Tomorrow: Meet Syed Ahmad, the year 12 student who uncovered the hidden data.