Top HSC marks can't guarantee medicine spot

AMY MCNEILAGE Only 48 of the more than 65,000 school leavers in NSW achieved the 99.95 ATAR needed to gain entry into medicine at the University of Sydney.

Final preferences loom for new uni students

Alexia Attwood Thousands of hopeful students are scrambling to make last-minute tweaks to their university preferences, as the midnight deadline for Main Round applications looms.

Less maths makes HSC physics 'dumb'

AMY MCNEILAGE The Board of Studies will review the HSC Physics syllabus this year to assess whether a move away from mathematical content had weakened the subject.

University applicants consider their verdict

AMY MCNEILAGE In the 24 hours after 55,000 students received their HSC results last week, almost 9000 went on to change their university preferences.

HSC: Indigenous student numbers on rise

JOSEPHINE TOVEY The number of indigenous students doing the HSC appears to have almost tripled in a decade, a shift the minister says is ''fantastic'' but still needs to be matched by a lift in performance.

Triumphant year for Kim Ho

JOSEPHINE TOVEY He made a groundbreaking short film that went viral around the world, received praise from celebrities for his work, and all the while conquering the gruelling HSC.

Teachers' work helped HSC students excel

Allison Jeffares The state's top performers in English say they could never have done it without the dedication of their teachers.

HSC harks back to gender stereotypes of '50s

AMY MCNEILAGE Looking at trends in this year's HSC results, one could be forgiven for thinking the results were from the 1950s.

ATAR results: D-Day for two years of study

AMY MCNEILAGE Almost 55,000 of the state's school leavers will find out their ATAR on Thursday. But it is doubtful many, if any, will truly understand the intricacies of how it was calculated.

The school that pulled back from the brink

JOSEPHINE TOVEY Jasmine Tamer was so excited about getting her HSC results she stayed up most of the night before they were released.

Top students urge others not to play safe

AMY MCNEILAGE The state's most talented maths and science students have urged more high school students to tackle the challenging HSC subjects instead of sticking to ''safe'' options.

From marks to sparks: ATARs set the stage

Charmaine Wong They have passed the stress test. Now former students weigh up their next role.

Students crash ATAR calculator websites

AMY MCNEILAGE Thousands of HSC students, desperate to find out if they will get into university, have caused the top ATAR calculator websites to crash.

Lecturers say maths is a must for engineering

AMY MCNEILAGE A university lecturer's suggestion that HSC maths is not essential to study engineering has annoyed his colleagues, who say they have worked hard to counter that perception.

Top HSC marks despite bushfire disruption

JOSEPHINE TOVEY A student who spent several nights fighting fires during his HSC exams still got the highest marks in the state in one of his subjects.

From Afghanistan to HSC success

AMY MCNEILAGE Students who could not speak English just a few years ago, including one refugee from Afghanistan, are expecting to be among the state's HSC high achievers this week.

Turnbull recalls receiving HSC results

JOSEPHINE TOVEY When more than 70, 000 students across NSW receive their HSC results this week, they will be hoping it goes more smoothly than it did for a young Malcolm Turnbull.

Lecturers struggle with unprepared students

AMY MCNEILAGE University lecturers are frustrated that students are enrolling in high-level mathematics, science and engineering degrees significantly unprepared because they have not studied maths or science for their HSC.

Indigenous education group loses funding

JOSEPHINE TOVEY The Abbott government has taken funding from a key indigenous education advisory group, citing the "tight fiscal environment" and the need to cut red tape.

Non-English background students thrive

JOSEPHINE TOVEY NSW year 7 students from non-English speaking backgrounds did better across all subjects in latest NAPLAN tests.

Educators acknowledge HSC flaws

Amy McNeilage HSC students are picking easier subjects and arriving at university ill-prepared partly because universities have decided not to mandate required knowledge for entry into certain degrees, education leaders acknowledge.

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Malek Fahd Islamic School wins reprieve

JOSEPHINE TOVEY Fears that one of New South Wales' largest private schools would be forced to close this summer have not materialised, with a reprieve granted by the Board of Studies.

Students told not to take easy road

AMY MCNEILAGE High school students are increasingly studying subjects they consider safe options rather than challenging themselves, the head of one of Sydney's most privileged private schools says.

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Teachers help students look the part

Josephine Tovey, Charmaine Wong School formals are a rite of passage for teenagers at the end of the school year. But for some, the cost is too much to bear.

Report card: need for urgent education reform

ANNA PATTY An increasing number of top students are funnelled into state selective and independent high schools, yet the academic performance of Australia's brightest 15-year-olds has continued its downward slide.

Australia's classrooms among world's noisiest

Rachel Browne, Amy McNeilage Australia has some of the noisiest classrooms in the world and is wasting teaching time but experts agree a quiet class is not always a good thing.

Shanghai students hit fast lane for success

Philip Wen If money is really key to buying a good education, then it is easy to see why Shanghai produces some of the brightest children in the world.

Maths tutoring adds up for students

AMY MCNEILAGE Many of the world's most mathematically gifted teenagers come from countries with the most lucrative tutoring industries.

Lessons from top-performing school systems

AMY MCNEILAGE Improving teacher quality, granting schools greater autonomy and resourcing education equitably have been highlighted as some of the unifying traits of the world's top-performing school systems.

Classroom noise linked to poor results

JOSEPHINE TOVEY Australian students report high levels of noise and disruption in their classroom and at rates worse than the US or Britain, a factor education experts say is linked to low levels of literacy and numeracy.

OECD report finds Australians falling behind

Josephine Tovey, Anna Patty Achievement in maths and reading has slumped, while huge gaps persist based on wealth, gender and whether students are indigenous.

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Teachers win higher salaries in wage deal

AMY MCNEILAGE The state's most talented classroom teachers will be rewarded with a six-figure salary and new teachers will move up the pay scale faster, under a new wage deal reached on Tuesday.

Public schools targeted for Gonski cuts

AMY MCNEILAGE The federal government has signalled that any cuts to funding for the states that signed on to Gonski would only be borne by public schools, according to NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli.

$2b body blow for NSW education

Amy McNeilage, Anna Patty NSW schools face losing more than $2 billion over the next six years as a result of the Abbott government's plans to abandon the last two years of Gonski money.

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Public school bans girls from wearing shorts

AMY MCNEILAGE A NSW primary school has banned girls from wearing shorts and made the wearing of dresses mandatory against the wishes of a number of students and their parents.

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NSW at risk of huge school funding bill

ANNA PATTY The NSW government may be forced to almost double its assistance to independent and Catholic schools after the federal government walks away from Gonski reforms.

$230m to states that didn't sign on to Gonski

Judith Ireland, Jonathan Swan The federal government has gone into damage control over school funding reforms, promising extra cash and blaming the media for not understanding the issue.

Children's learning in country trails city

Daniella Miletic Country schoolchildren have poorer cognitive abilities and are less likely to do well at school than children from major cities, according to a new Australian study.

Principals angry over funding uncertainty

RACHEL BROWNE Schools across sectors have reacted angrily to the Coalition's backflip on funding, with many saying the uncertainty over budgets makes forward planning impossible.

States furious over double backflip on Gonski

Mark Kenny, Anna Patty The debate over the Gonski school reforms has caused a serious rift between governments after Premier Barry O'Farrell blasted his federal colleagues for abandoning the funding agreement he struck with the former Labor government.

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Gonski drama met with dread and agreement

Rachel Browne, Amy McNeilage The NSW Secondary Principals Council president and Merrylands High School principal, Lila Mularczyk, described the threat of a Gonski backflip as a blow to fairness in education funding.

Parents like NAPLAN more than teachers

AMY MCNEILAGE Many parents are noticing their children are stressed and anxious as a result of NAPLAN testing, with symptoms such as sleeplessness, sickness and crying. But despite this, they still like the tests more than teachers.

Law students told get over exam woes

JACQUELINE MALEY Since the Sydney University corporations law exam was disrupted by a fire alarm a fortnight ago, the law faculty has been pitched against elements within the law student body.

Piccoli vows to hold Pyne to Gonski

Josephine Tovey, Dan Harrison The NSW government has warned the Commonwealth it will not support any dismantling of the Gonski school funding model.

Year 10 teachers' end of year battle

AMY MCNEILAGE Teachers of year 10 classes across the state face a conundrum at this time of year: while there is almost a month left before the Christmas break, most have exhausted the curriculum.

Funding changes hit ESL support

ANNA PATTY Specialist support for teachers of English as a second language is being abolished in a move that academics and community groups say will disadvantage vulnerable refugee and migrant children.

Downgrades threaten some rural principals

AMY MCNEILAGE Principals of small primary schools are worried a state government proposal to overhaul their positions will damage links with their communities, and even lead to closures.

Greenwich's gay student bill on hold

Josephine Tovey A bill to overturn controversial laws that allow private schools to expel students for being gay or transgender has been shelved indefinitely after the NSW Coalition indicated it was unlikely to support the change.

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Piccoli calls for cap on teaching degrees

Amy McNeilage Minister calls for a cap on the number of students allowed to enrol in teaching degrees to curb the state's oversupply of primary school teachers.

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Girls top at school but women lag in pay stakes

JOSEPHINE TOVEY It is the "baffling contrast" in gender equality in Australia: girls generally outperform boys at school, and are more likely to hold a bachelor degree, but men continue to earn more than women in the workplace.

Teaching: 40,000 looking for permanent jobs

AMY MCNEILAGE The oversupply of primary teachers is likely to last until the end of the decade even if resignations or retirements double.

Byron Bay opens its arms to schoolies

JOSEPHINE TOVEY It is not just excited school leavers packing bags and making plans to travel to Byron Bay for schoolies in the coming weeks.

Log on to a learning revolution

AMY MCNEILAGE Varun Pant recently passed Stanford University courses in cryptography and logic without dropping a single mark. But he's never been to the prestigious American institution.

Sydney University senate takes to the media

JOSEPHINE TOVEY In an apparent media takeover of the University of Sydney's governing body, four of the five graduate positions in the Senate election have been won by journalists, columnists and editors.

Shortfall of Asian language teachers

ANNA PATTY NSW is short of more than 2500 teachers to provide students with a continuous course in Asian languages from kindergarten to year 12.

Fears of uni fee rise after Kemp review

DANIEL HURST An Abbott government review of the university funding system will be headed by former Liberal education minister David Kemp and one of his old advisers, fuelling fears student fees could increase.

P&C federation referred to ICAC

JOSEPHINE TOVEY Education Minister Adrian Piccoli has referred the state's main body representing public school parents to the corruption watchdog, amid continuing internal divisionwithin the organisation.

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Parenting advice: just relax, say academics

COSIMA MARRINER Time-poor parents are lavishing more attention on their children, at a cost of stressing out their families, new research suggests.

Warning about overseas students group

Josephine Tovey The O'Farrell government , NSW Police and universities have issued a warning about an organisation claiming to represent international students which has been asking for personal information.

$80m package to help remote schools

JOSEPHINE TOVEY Teachers will be offered trial programs in remote schools, increased possibility of a permanent placement in a push to attract and retain more teachers in the bush.

After 117 exams, the HSC is finally over

Kim Arlington After sweating over 14 million pages of questions during 117 exams, the HSC is finally over for more than 75,000 students. The collective sigh of relief could be heard around the state.

HSC students dump more complex maths

JOSEPHINE TOVEY Students are abandoning the more complex 2-unit HSC maths course in favour of the simpler ''general'' course in an attempt to maximise their ATAR, but then find themselves ill-equipped to cope at university.

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Poll supports change to gay student law

JOSEPHINE TOVEY Two-thirds of NSW people are opposed to laws allowing private schools to discriminate against or expel students on the basis of their sexuality, a phone poll has revealed.

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Design courses under threat

AMY MCNEILAGE TAFE students fear that impending changes to fees will mean they are priced out of their courses.

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Music sharpens young minds, says report

Kim Arlington Music education can help academic achievement, sharpen attentiveness and creativity and enhance memory and fine motor skills, says a new report.

Gillard calls for lively education debate

Benjamin Preiss Former PM says those who argue money doesn't matter in education are conservative commentators who educate their own children in the most moneyed schools.

UNSW law graduate books a place at Oxford

Kim Arlington For Kunal Sharma, being named as the new Rhodes Scholar for NSW was something akin to going to the Oscars.

Absenteeism adds up to poor maths results

JOSEPHINE TOVEY Young children who frequently take days off school have poorer results in maths, new research shows, but the same level of absenteeism appears to have less of an effect on literacy.

More finish year 12, but then hit the wall

DANIEL HURST The number of students finishing year 12 has grown over the past five years but the result is soured by a drop in school leavers moving on to full time work or study.

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Labor backs gay student bill

JOSEPHINE TOVEY NSW Labor will throw its support behind a push to abolish controversial laws that allow private schools to expel or discriminate against gay or transgender students.

Private schools move to needs-based funding

ANNA PATTY Minister moves to amend the Education Act to allow it to comply with a new national agreement for funding non-government schools, with the sector set to receive extra $790 million over six years.

Cuts were 'worse without Gonski funds'

KIRSTY NEEDHAM The funding cuts to disadvantaged NSW schools would have been worse if the Gillard government had not tipped in $100 million in Gonski cash, a top education bureaucrat says.

School bans phones to rekindle social skills

AMY MCNEILAGE Clusters of teenagers glued to their smartphones have become a largely unremarkable scene in most social settings.

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200 schools worse off in new scheme

JOSEPHINE TOVEY More than 200 public schools in NSW, many in low socio-economic areas, will receive less funding next year under the new Gonski-inspired model, despite a $100 million boost to the sector.

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Teachers little help to brightest students

Benjamin Preiss New study reveals that teachers are adding little ''value'' for students who are highly proficient in reading and maths

Numbers align for girls who put in hard yards

RACHEL BROWNE For some it was tough but fair, for others it didn't add up. That was the verdict as thousands of NSW students tackled their first HSC maths exams on Tuesday.

Degree of difference pays off at preschools

COSIMA MARRINER Children who attended preschool score higher in NAPLAN tests than their peers who did not - but only if their preschool teacher was highly qualified.

Memes the word: lighter side of the HSC

JOSEPHINE TOVEY The HSC has been a stressful time for successive generations of year 12 students, but the current crop has found a decidedly millennial form of catharsis and humour to get through their exams.

Bushfires: HSC students evacuated mid-exam

Josephine Tovey, Amy McNeilage The fires which tore through NSW on Thursday broke out as many HSC students held pens in hand, studying for or sitting the exams they have worked towards for years.

Private schools no guarantee of higher NAPLAN scores, study finds

COSIMA MARRINER Children who attend private primary schools don't perform any better in NAPLAN tests than their peers at public schools, new research shows.

Stress to success: riding the wave of the HSC

Some of the country's greatest achievers look back on their school days and tell Josephine Tovey and Kim Arlington how they survived their exams.

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Rich themes of cultural diversity in 'belonging' HSC question

JOSEPHINE TOVEY In Australia's diverse classrooms, following the adage to ''write what you know'' produces a rich range of material, if yesterday's HSC examination is anything to go by.

By rote or not by rote, that is the question for English HSC

JOSEPHINE TOVEY The first HSC questions will not be revealed until 11.20am on Monday, but many students already know almost exactly what they will write for their English exam.

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State P&C; 'racked by bullying, disharmony'

JOSEPHINE TOVEY It is supposed to be the peak body representing the interests of thousands of parents who send their children to public schools.

Bonus points plan to raise low levels of language study

JOSEPHINE TOVEY Students who study a language for their HSC could be given bonus Australian Tertiary Admission Rank points and all primary school children would undertake some form of language education under proposals to address the low levels of foreign language study in NSW.

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Students stop taking Asian languages in senior years

Amy McNeilage, Josephine Tovey Senior high school students in NSW are giving up on Asian languages at an astonishing rate, despite growth among younger students.

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Teacher sues over difficult students

Nick Toscano, Aisha Dow A former public school teacher who claims he was intentionally allocated classes of a school's ''most unruly and challenging'' students is suing the state government.

Burnout hits one in four teachers

Konrad Marshall Study shows more than one in four new teachers are suffering from 'emotional exhaustion'.

Teachers offer lessons in dedication for keen HSC students

JOSEPHINE TOVEY With HSC exams approaching fast, it's not just students who are feeling nervous and working hard.

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Geography loses as HSC students map their futures

AMY MCNEILAGE HSC students are increasingly choosing subjects such as legal studies and construction with their eye on a future job, at the expense of languages and complex maths and science subjects.

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Low grades for casual teachers in NSW schools

ANNA PATTY School principals have questioned the quality of casual teachers who carry up to 10 per cent of the teaching load at public schools.

Christopher Pyne doubt on languages target

DANIEL HURST The federal government may struggle to meet its target for high school language studies, Education Minister Christopher Pyne has said.

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Number of HSC language students falls to record low

Josephine Tovey, Amy McNeilage The proportion of students studying a foreign language for the Higher School Certificate is at a historic low and less than a fifth of what it was during the 1950s, new data shows.

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Sydney University averts strike action in long-running industrial dispute

JOSEPHINE TOVEY It has lasted for most of 2013, prompted staff picket lines on campus and seen police drag protesters from lecture theatres, but a long-running industrial dispute at Australia’s oldest university is drawing to a close.

Australian unis slide in international rankings

Benjamin Preiss Melbourne University has lost its place in the top 30 of a key international ranking while other Australian universities have also fallen.

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States keep watch on school deals

DANIEL HURST The Abbott government will face fresh demands from states that signed school funding agreements before the election if the hold-out states are lured with more favourable offers.

Compassion needed to keep siblings together

JOSEPHINE TOVEY Emma Cotterill's son and daughter live in the same house but they may soon be required to attend different ''local'' high schools, eight kilometres apart.

• Enrol in less popular schools: minister