There was a feeling of expectation in the air as Gunnedah shire’s Year 12 students received their Higher School Certificate (HSC) results.
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Forty-two students from St Mary’s College and 25 students from Gunnedah High School sat the HSC exams over October and November.
On Thursday morning, St Mary’s principal Max Quirk told the Namoi Valley Independent that five students achieved a band 6 over six subjects – studies of religion, PDHPE, senior science, music and modern history.
Altogether, ten band sixes were achieved and 68 band 5s. Mr Quirk said three students in particular achieved all band 5s and 6s.
“Teachers have been on the phone and social media this morning and there are a lot of happy kids,” Mr Quirk said.
In studies of religion, there were two band 6s and 12 band 5s. In PDHPE, two band 6s and seven band 5s were achieved. Out of the four students who sat the modern history exam, one achieved a band 6 and two achieved a band 5.
“Music was a standout – two band 6s and three band 5s out of five kids, so that’s pretty impressive,” Mr Quirk said.
“I think we’re seeing a change in the culture in the school where students are applying themselves much harder to their studies, and our goal has been to get the [band] fours into [band] fives and the [band] fives into [band] sixes, and that’s what we’ve been seeing over the last two years.”
Gunnedah High School was listed among New England and North West public schools whose students earned a top band.
Principal Shane Kelly he was “very pleased” with the school’s results.
“They’re the best in the five years that I’ve been principal,” he said.
“Our students received two band 6s and 14 band 5s, and for me what’s also very pleasing is the amount of subjects that are above state average or at state average.
The two band 6s were achieved in hospitality and senior science and five students “performed very solidly”, achieving a combination of bands 6, 5 and 4.
“Across the board it shows that the school is performing strongly and that’s been the trend for the last five years,” Mr Kelly said.
“It shows that the concentration on the visible learning is really paying off and results are continuously improving.”
Local students are now awaiting their Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR), which will be released on Friday. ATARs are the rank NSW and ACT universities use to select school-leavers for their courses.
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