By Lucy Carroll and Nigel Gladstone
Jessica Schadel is no stranger to questions about how the comprehensive public high school she leads achieves results that rank it among top performers in the HSC.
“There isn’t anything magic going on,” says Schadel, principal at Epping Boys High School, which finished 60th in this year’s HSC rankings and eclipsed multiple high-fee and selective stream schools.
Epping Boys High students receiving their HSC results. The school was a top-performing comprehensive school in mathematics.Credit: Steven Siewert
In maths advanced and extension, Epping Boys was the second ranked non-selective state school, with almost 50 per cent of students scoring marks over 90 – its best success rate on record.
The school had similar maths success rates to boys’ private schools St Aloysius College and Shore, while among non-selective public schools it was beaten only by Balgowlah Boys High School.
For Schadel, there are no secret tricks and no faddish teaching methods.
“A lot comes down to the fundamentals, the basics of teaching. Don’t clutter things up. Do the simple things well,” she says. “It’s about having that depth, rather than a scattergun approach.”
Students answer maths problems in front of class, she says, even constructing their own questions, writing them on the whiteboard and showing solutions. “It helps to demonstrate knowledge and then evaluate their own performance. That’s when you get that high level of achievement,” she says.
Epping Boys teachers use explicit instruction. Their feedback is methodical and teachers are encouraged to be HSC markers. Next year, teachers’ professional learning will be focused on writing, diving into the nitty-gritty of sentence, paragraph and essay structure and writing under timed conditions.
“We are calling it the year of the pen,” Schadel says. “A move back to some time for students to write with pen and paper is also good for their wellbeing – and results.”
A Herald analysis of the top 10 highest-performing schools in HSC advanced and extension maths reveals six were selective public schools while the remainder were private institutions.
Al-Faisal College in Auburn was the state’s top-performing maths school, followed by selective public schools North Sydney Boys High and James Ruse Agricultural High, which came first and second in the Herald’s overall rankings across all subjects, respectively.
All-girls school Meriden had high success rates in HSC maths advanced and extension courses.Credit: Rhett Whyman
Results are calculated on the portion of students who achieved the highest scores (band six or E4, or marks over 90) in the hardest maths courses: advanced, extension 1 and extension 2.
Al-Faisal had 68 high scores in advanced maths courses from 76 entries. North Sydney Boys had 232 high scores from 287 entries and James Ruse 248 high scores from 316 entries.
Selective public schools do not offer standard maths courses and have large numbers of student entries in advanced, with many taking the toughest extension levels. Sydney Boys High School had an impressive number of entries at 444, returning 299 high scores.
Meriden in Strathfield was among the top 20 and one of only three all-girls schools in that group. It was also identified last month as a high-performing NAPLAN school in both literacy and numeracy results.
The private school had 55 per cent of students achieving marks over 90 in the highest maths courses, similar to some selective public schools.
Principal Lisa Brown says strong results in senior years are built on solid foundations from primary school.
“Enjoyment of maths is key, and confidence in maths from an early age,” she says.
“From upper primary, it’s vital that there are confident teachers who are able to teach maths. When teachers feel a little less confident in delivering what they need to, that can affect the students – it has a flow-on impact.”
HSC subject enrolment data shows more boys than girls take maths at the advanced and extension level. However, in the past decade, the proportion of girls enrolling in extension 2 has fallen from 36 to 33 per cent.
This year, private school Abbotsleigh in Wahroonga had a 58 per cent success rate, making it the state’s top-performing all-girls school in maths after selective North Sydney Girls High.
Abbotsleigh head of maths Betina Wrightson says nearly 100 per cent of the girls study some form of maths.
“We celebrate the successes of our girls, no matter how big or small,” she says.
At Epping Boys, year 12 student Caleb Graham says a positive culture throughout the school, “not just academics, but in everything” contributes to success.
“Sport, music and co-curricular – it’s all intertwined and all helps with learning,” he says. “We have a wide range of sport, soccer teams, and we have a year 10 mentor program for students coming into year 7.”
Get the day’s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter here.