It is a big feat for a school to outperform every other in the state to come first in the HSC. Teachers are essential, student effort is fundamental. And maybe a dose of luck plays a part as well.
Pupils at North Sydney Boys High, which this year topped the rankings for the second year in a row, trace their success back to three days on a tiny island outside Sydney.
Prefect Tharun Bandara celebrates his HSC results at North Sydney Boys High School on Wednesday.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
On a warm November day last year, they took a train an hour north to the Hawkesbury River and boarded a creaky ferry to Milson Island – a former asylum which had subsequently been converted into cabin accommodation. The next three days the students spent there would change their schooling life.
Milson Island on the Hawkesbury River.
They were there for study camp, with its itinerary organised in advance by school prefects.
Yes, there was time set aside for the things other high school students might do, such as canoeing and fishing, but the first and last hours of the day would be dedicated to study skills – with different teachers offering study specific to various subjects, while alumni would talk about their degrees.
North Sydney Boys captain Minh-Tam Dinh.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
“People would come in and tell us how to study. They would give us subject-specific advice,” prefect Tharun Bandara said.
“It gave us insight into what to do for the future and how to beat the challenge of the HSC from people who have already beaten it.”
But the biggest takeaway was simple: collaboration.
“The big message from the camp was collaboration was a must. It fostered a good community within the school,” he said.
Milson Island, formerly home to an asylum, proved a tranquil spot for the students to focus on HSC strategies.
While the camp was fundamental to the culture, it was also practical. The students knew they needed the systems and architecture in place to foster that collaboration, and set up a school Discord server – similar to a chat group. It replicated the successful systems used by the previous cohort who came first, and it meant students could submit and elicit feedback in subjects such as English.
“It all hinged on teamwork. That was the end goal that we wanted,” vice captain Jerry Yuan said.
North Sydney Boys vice captain Jerry Yuan.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
The Discord server had communications channels for each subject. Each of the 150 students would be able to send maths problems they couldn’t solve or ask questions about their English texts.
“There would be channels where we send questions, we could paste in, for example, a body paragraph from an essay and ask for feedback from the top 10 kids,” said prefect Harry Wilson.
Fellow prefect Niall Boomla called the Discord system their “secret little academic weapon”.
Niall Boomla was among the students prefects who organised the study camp last November.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
On Wednesday principal Brian Ferguson called them into the school library to tell them they had placed first again. School captain Minh-Tam Dinh said it was a team effort.
“It was a constant process of working together, getting feedback from teachers, getting guidance. So I wouldn’t exactly say there was like one moment where it all clicked together, but it was more so like the culmination of a lot of effort on everyone’s part,” he said.
While the precise reasons for success might be challenging to pin down, it is apparent that North Sydney Boys students outperform their rivals in one key subject: English.
Ferguson noted that traditionally students who came to the school were passionate about numbers and not necessarily literature.
“The teachers work hard to teach the students that love of writing,” he said.
The school’s head of English, Loveday Sharpington-Recny, said: “We foster that love of reading and literature from year 7, and also just scaffolding writing skills with students, showing them explicitly how they can write and how they can improve in their writing.”
But she also thinks their success was driven by the culture of teamwork.
“It’s just been a change in culture over a period of time, students sharing their work, helping each other, helping students who struggle a bit more with certain skills to develop them,” she said.
Prefect Naman Doshi said: “We have this reputation of being really cut-throat and competitive, but I think the way the HSC is built is the more you work together, the better you do overall.”
Student leaders knew they had to give the students one final push ahead of their English exam. At the graduation dinner at Norths Cammeray, they got the students on stage to sing the school song.
“The grade needed a final push to rile them up. We just needed a massive speech to motivate everyone,” he said.
Prefect Aaron Tian quoted Kanye West to the students: “What would you do if you didn’t win? I guess we’ll never know.”
After they came first on Wednesday afternoon, Minh-Tam said it was never so assured.
“Honestly, just a little bit surreal … It was like a sense of disbelief.”
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