The school year has ended and the boys have been shipped off with my parents to spend a week at a beach-front resort on the mid-north coast before we join them on Christmas eve. The boys deserve a break - they've both been applying themselves at school and have achieved the results they deserve. They both got "straigh-A's" on their school report cards, so I'll be giving them $30 each as a small reward for their efforts. The rewards system I introduced last year was $5 for every 'A' (actually, the best report grades currently in use in the NSW education system are 'outstanding' in high school reports, and 'high' in primary school reports). But this year I simplified in to just being a flat $30 rewards for getting straight-A's.
DS1's school achieved another good outcome in this year's HSC results - ranking 8th in the state with 50.7% of the students making the 'distinguished achievers' list. But the whole idea of ranking high schools is a bit silly, as the results are fairly predictable and seem to be based mostly on the mix of students that are attending the school, rather than the 'value added' by the school itself.
For example, the school that is consistently ranked number one in the state, James Ruse High, is therefore the most sought-after school for selective school applicants. It therefore has the highest 'cut-off' mark of any of the selective high schools each year (ie. only the 'best' students can get in), and, as sure as night follows day, six years later that cohort of students gets the best HSC results in the state...
The correlation between the minimum entry score (or 'cut-off; mark) required to gain entry into a selective high school and its HSC results seems quite clear, so it will be interesting to see how DS1s school performs in future years. According to the trend in 'cut-off' mark over the past several years, I would predict that it will continue to do well (as the cut-off marks for entry into those years had increased by around 5 marks). Unfortunately entry cut-off marks have only been published since 2007, so the trend can't be quantified just yet, but should become clear over the next few years...
Manly Selective HS:
Yr 7 entry >> HSC results
Year cut-off Year Rank %DA
2014 205 2019
2013 207 2018
2012 205 2017
2011 201 2016
2010 202 2015
2009 199 2014 8 50.7
2008 201 2013 11 43.0
2007 n.a 2012 7 51.4
2006 n.a 2011 10 45.1
2005 n.a 2010 7 47.2
2004 n.a 2009 15 41.1
2003 n.a 2008 15 37.7
2002 n.a 2007 20 32.6
Comparing these to the data for one of the top selective schools (Sydney Boys High) shows that the Year 12 HSC results are dependent on the quality of the cohort selected for entry into Year 7:
Sydney Boys Selective HS:
Yr 7 entry >> HSC results
Year cut-off Year Rank %DA
2014 218 2019
2013 216 2018
2012 222 2017
2011 223 2016
2010 219 2015
2009 219 2014 6 53.0
2008 219 2013 7 48.2
2007 n.a 2012 8 48.5
2006 n.a 2011 4 56.7
2005 n.a 2010 6 49.2
2004 n.a 2009 7 43.8
2003 n.a 2008 7 44.7
2002 n.a 2007 10 39.2
Of course, the ranking of the school itself only has an indirect impact on an individual student's HSC result and ATAR (as the performance on the student cohort at a particular school in the HSC will affect the scaling of the HSC marks of students attending that school). Of more importance will be how well DS1 does in his chosen HSC courses, and where he ranks amongst fellow students at his school in these subjects. Getting an 'outstanding' result in all Yr 9 subjects, which puts him in the top half of the school in every subject, suggest he should be able to achieve an ATAR of 98+. But as he has no clear idea of which course he wants to do at university, it comes down to simply doing as well as he can, so that he has a good chance of gaining entry into whichever course he fancies.
DS1 is enrolled (via distance education) in an HSC preliminary subject (Software Design and Development) as an 'accelerated' student next year, so he will have completed one of his HSC subjects whilst he's still in Year 11. If he does well enough in that subject it may help him get a good ATAR result, as he will still be doing the normal workload of other HSC subjects in year 12, so he will have an extra couple of units to pick from when the best 10 units are used to calculate his ATAR. Of course the disadvantage of doing his favorite subject as an 'accelerated' student is that he will be competing with students that are a year ahead of him. Also, the distance education course is offered by a non-selective high school that doesn't have exceptional HSC results overall. So unless DS1 ranks at the very top of his class in SDD, his scaled mark in this subject won't be very high. Also, SDD in general doesn't scale up very much, due to the general caliber of the students taking this subject for the HSC, so it's unlikely his SDD result will be included in his 'best 10 units' used for ATAR calculations.
DS1 has also been offered a place in the UNSW High School Computing course in the first half of next year - which teaches the first year university course in computing to selected Yr 11/12 high school students (and a few 'exceptional' year 10 students, such as DS1). It should be fun for him to do, and quite exciting for him to be attending 'uni' after school once a week! While not an HSC subject (so I'm glad he is able to do it while in Year 10, so it won't impact on his Year 11/12 studies), it should help him do well in his SDD course. Also, if he does extremely well (getting 85%+) he would be allowed to enter the CSE Elite students program if he decides to enrol in computer science at UNSW.
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