At a small high school on the outskirts of Newcastle, 63 year 12 students have their pictures, goals and aspirations pinned to the principal’s wall.
Jessica Lette, who completed her HSC this year and received an ATAR of 61.95 on Thursday, says this has been a source of inspiration for students at West Wallsend high, which has had a remarkable turnaround in its academic results.
“Every time we’d go to her office, we would see where we’re at and what we wanted to achieve, which was great because it made it really personal,” Lette says. “It was good to know our principal actually supports us.”
Lette achieved two band 5s in her HSC and felt “pretty good” about her result.
While the school did not exceed its results from 2021, more than 60% of the year 12 cohort were in the top 3 bands for some of their subjects. More than half of the students on university pathways are confident they will be starting tertiary study next year.
And that number is a significant jump from 2016, when only 10% of students were progressing to tertiary education.
“Overall I’m pretty happy with it, particularly the band 5s I got in English advanced and community and family studies, so [I’m] happy with that,” Lette said.
She is one of the many students at the school who is relieved their futures don’t depend on Atar results, with more than half of the year receiving early university offers.
The principal, Krystal Bevin, says the wall embodies the strategy of the school’s Ignite program, a unique structure that offers bespoke mentorship to each year 12 student.
“It’s really about understanding the personal story behind every student,” Bevin says.
“Every young person has a mentor and then their goals and aspirations before they even hit year 12 – and then we make sure that there’s a personalised program of support that sits behind them.”
West Wallsend high has a large proportion of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, with its index of community socio-educational advantage coming in well below the national average.
“There’s been a real cultural shift in our community,” Bevin says. “Traditionally, we were a community that had jobs in the mining industry. And then as that mining industry shifted over time, so did the job opportunities for our families and our young people.”
The year 12 cohort has nearly doubled since 2016, rising from 35 students to 63 sitting the HSC in 2022. More than half are on track to become the first person in their families to receive a Higher School Certificate.
“Everything tells us we shouldn’t be doing well,” Bevin says. “Our ability to pivot and personalise learning and wellbeing support to meet the needs of the student and also their family became very important.
“I think the big ticket here for us has been aspirations and actually opening the door to young people whose parents or grandparents didn’t have the same academic pathway, and just sharing and informing and supporting our families to understand that this is a potential pathway.”
As part of the program, the school has instituted a scholarship team to “hunt down” opportunities for their students. Last year, students at West Wallsend accessed more than $200,000 worth of scholarships.
Lette says the Ignite program helped lift her and made her dream of studying to be a primary teacher a reality.
“I’ve had a mentor since I moved to the school,” she says. “She gives us time to discuss everything we’re having challenges with, gives us ways to cope with our stress and help with motivation.”
The funding divide widens
Last year West Wallsend high retained 100% of its students from year 11 to year 12, but like all schools that take students predominantly from low-socioeconomic communities, it faces an uphill battle.
In 2021 there was only one non-selective public school in the state’s top 15 schools for HSC results, coming in at 14th. The next non-selective government school came in at 58th.
Of the top 100 schools, only five were non-selective public schools. In 2020 that number was 14 and in 2019 it was 11.
An analysis in February showed that federal and state government funding for private schools had increased at nearly five times the rate of public school funding over the past 10 years.
The report found that funding for private schools increased by $3,338 per student, adjusted for inflation, compared with $703 per student for public schools.
Dr Meera Varadharajan, a research fellow at the centre for social impact at the University of New South Wales, says educational disadvantage can take many forms, such as a lack of access to qualified teachers or support strategies, but funding is key.
“A lot of schools in NSW are not being funded equitably, which … means that some students have access to wonderful facilities and wonderful teachers, but then there’s all these other groups of students who tend to miss out.”
Varadharajan says there is a direct connection between HSC results and the level of socioeconomic disadvantage faced by a school community.
“The problem with education disadvantage is it’s very closely linked to other forms of disadvantage,” Varadharajan says.
“So all of those factors … outside school factors, the family factors, the regional factors … they’re all closely connected.
“It is very disappointing to see and very frustrating.”
Glenn Fahey, the program director at the Centre for Independent Studies, says “effective allocation of our best teachers” is the key to improving educational outcomes.
“This remains a challenge, and a particularly geographical one, because students most in need tend to be those that are furthest away from our most effective teachers.”
The federal government has projected a shortfall of more than 4,000 high school teachers by 2025, mostly in NSW and Queensland. With demand at historic highs, schools that can’t offer attractive salaries or packages miss out on the best teachers.
“Independent schools in particular have a lot more opportunity to offer a range of pay to attract highly effective teachers; government schools don’t have that same flexibility,” Fahey says.
“It’s not a level playing field.”
