CGS From the Head - 15 December 2017

To all in the School community,

Let me begin with the highest priority, which is to congratulate our Year 12 HSC students on their results received yesterday and this morning, as outlined in my congratulatory statement on our website. We wish them great happiness in their successes.

However, it is a shame that once again the media has chosen to make a headline out of a meaningless statistic. As explained in the body of today’s Canberra Times article itself, however, and as outlined in information from the School every year since the introduction of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Progamme (IBDP), the School’s position in the HSC league tables is entirely irrelevant, as it excludes an increasingly large proportion of our Year 12 candidature - this year 30% - who sat for the IBDP instead of the HSC.

In other words, the results of nearly 1 in every 3 students were simply not included, hence the School’s apparently declining position. This applies to all dual track HSC/IBDP schools as is explained here: https://ibschoolsnswact.org/ and is more pronounced as an IBDP cohort grows. It is wrong for media outlets to publish such misleading statistics and headlines, but we believe that the educational value of offering our students a choice between two excellent academic programmes that suit each of them differently by far outweighs the impact of this annual media exercise.

Nonetheless, our HSC students and their families and teachers deserve to be proud of their achievements and do not deserve the demoralisation of media headlines designed as click-grabs, nor do they deserve to be labelled as a poorly performing year group. They are not. In fact, if our IBDP students’ results were somehow to be included, we would expect the league tables to show this to be one of our stronger years.

Please understand that this phenomenon is not about the quality of the HSC performance, and we remain absolute in our commitment to our HSC students and our excellent HSC programme, which is rigorous, academically challenging and very well resourced. Once again, we are especially proud of some terrific individual and subject successes, as outlined in my congratulatory statement and in the body of the Canberra Times article itself.

I am delighted, for example, that even with a smaller HSC cohort this year than last year, more of our students gained places in the all-round achievers list for attaining 90% or more in at least 10 of their units. While we do not yet have confirmation of ATARs, our HSC dux is likely to have achieved well above 99, just as in other comparable schools. Our students also markedly outperformed the NSW state cohorts in upper bands in subjects as diverse as Software Design and Development, Ancient and Modern History, Agriculture, PDHPE, Economics and Drama.  We were delighted by gains in English this year, and by some very impressive results in Languages taken early in Year 11.

The reality is that individual HSC students still performed more and less as expected, as is normal at all schools every year; indeed some performed exceptionally well and, for some, completion itself was a triumph to be celebrated over difficult personal circumstances. We are also proud that 100% of students who sought an ATAR received one, that more students than ever took vocational pathways suited to their strengths and interests, and that 35% of HSC students attained early offers to universities before they had even received their results.

This is all in the context of a School in which students led their communities in service, performed in music and drama, played sport at the highest levels and took full part in the array of opportunity that makes life at Canberra Grammar School special.

Of course, it is always the case that some individuals are disappointed by their results despite their efforts, just as some are very happily surprised by a stronger outcome than they expected and choose to adjust their aspirations accordingly. We stand by to support all students in their next steps and warmly welcome the diversification of access routes to tertiary education that now means many more students find their way to their desired destinations regardless of their ATAR.

In short, I congratulate our HSC students, and I share with them pride in their achievements in the knowledge of the opportunities now ahead of them. I thank them for their enormous contribution to the School and I wish them all happiness in the future.

Sincerely,

Justin Garrick
Head of School