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At St John Bosco College in southern Sydney, high school students file into the library once a fortnight to take a 50-minute structured reading lesson.
“There was definitely reluctance and hesitation when we started our reading for pleasure program a few years ago,” says principal Jenny Fowler. “But we had to do it. Students tend to like reading in primary years, and then it just drops away when they start high school.”
The Catholic school’s head of English, Diana Buic, says the lessons are designed for year 7 and 8 groups, with students able to choose their own book for the quiet reading session.
“We need more reading, but it does need to be allocated time. It helps students make meaning of words and language, and helps extend their reading too,” says Buic, adding that for her advanced English students this year most enjoyed Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and T.S Eliot poems.
St John Bosco Catholic College ranked seventh on the Herald’s list of best HSC English results, and reported the biggest rise in its success rate – up from three per cent in 2019 to 53.3 per cent of students with top band 6 mark.
Year 12 students Liam Blair, Tayla Campbell, Sienna Robertson and Thomas Smart from St John Bosco Collage with principal Jenny Fowler after receiving their HSC and ATAR results. Credit: Ben Symons
The analysis of success rates calculates the portion of students who achieve the highest marks of band six or E4 marks from those who participate advanced and extension English courses.
North Sydney Boys High School was ranked first with a success rate of 68.7 per cent from its entries, followed narrowly by comprehensive public school Killarney Heights High with 68.2 per cent.
Alpha Omega College and Kambala both achieved 66 per cent success rates, while Brigidine College Randwick surged up the charts rising from 33.8 per cent to 57.8 per cent. Reddam House ranked just behind Brigidine.
Buic says while St John Bosco’s structured reading program in the early years of high school sets up good reading habits, it is the college’s “back to basics approach” to teaching writing that has underpinned the skyrocketing English success rate.
“We have a real focus on building foundational writing skills, starting in year 7, which is essential because you can’t start teaching essay writing in year 11,” she says.
“If you look at this year’s year 12 cohort, the data was showing us very early on that there were gaps in writing and that had started when they were in lockdown during the pandemic. We had to remove the clutter and focus on writing. This meant getting back to basis, from sentence structure, how to build that into paragraphs and slowly building complexity and analysis.”
Fowler says the school also hired a literacy specialist to work with teachers and students, while teaching staff also have gained more experience as HSC markers. “The teachers work together, sharing resources and making sure there is a consistency across lessons.”
“We also have a culture of high expectations, and students know what to expect in lessons and how to get there,” Fowler says.
Diana Hussei, 2015, the head of English at Alpha Omega College in Auburn said while the school has always been successful in standard English, the past few years we wanted to focus on advanced.
“We set out clear criteria that we use to mark essays and hold timed mock exams leading up to assessments. The key thing is we give a lot of feedback and each student has an individual study plan,” Hussei says.
Killarney Heights High School principal Hayley Emmerton with year 12 students.Credit: Janie Barrett
At North Sydney Boys, which has steadily increased the proportion of band sixes in English every single year, acting head of English Loveday Sharpington-Recny told the Herald that teachers have encouraged students to see it as an enjoyable subject.
“The school has been traditionally orientated towards challenging mathematics and science subjects. In English, we have for a couple of years now been fostering a strong love of literature,” she says.
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