Top schools: all the VCE data on Victorian schools
Henrietta Cook, Timna Jacks and Craig Butt Increasingly, parents select schools for their children based on VCE and NAPLAN data. Here, you can find Victorian schools, the programs they offer and data on their students' VCE achievements for 2015.
Latest education news
No fee, no see: International students denied a VCE score
Timna Jacks International school students in Victoria are being denied access to their VCE scores if they fail to pay school fees, despite local students being granted unfettered access to their academic record.
Corruption-fighting body to investigate botched $180 million Ultranet project for schools
Henrietta Cook Former top Victorian education officials could be hauled back to Melbourne from the Middle East to appear before a corruption hearing into the disastrous $180 million Ultranet IT project for schools.
High achievers: 40-plus VCE students
These are Victoria's top students; those who received 40-plus study scores in VCE subjects in 2015. Some received only one 40-plus score in their favourite subject; others received four or five, accumulating a perfect ATAR in the process. Search on schools or students.
A mystery mining gift for Mai
Liam Mannix A mystery mining company has come good for Mai Duong, the Vietnamese international student who faced being unable to do her chosen degree at university because her ATAR score fell agonisingly short.
How do you recover from an ATAR in the 40s or 50s? Very well, actually
Kate Nancarrow From the shock and disappointment of low ATARs, these four students have moved on to academic and career success. Between them they now have distinction or high distinction averages, Masters degrees, interesting jobs ... and a PhD on the way.
The identical twins with an eerie VCE coincidence
Henrietta Cook They're identical twins who studied the same subjects, attended the same school and both decided to wait for their VCE results to arrive in the mail.
Where's the best school to study VCE English, maths methods and sociology?
Henrietta Cook, Craig Butt Lena Hudson broke down in tears in the Keilor Downs College staff tearoom when she heard how well her VCE students had performed.
Home-school hero
Henrietta Cook and Timna Jacks He's the student who achieved a perfect VCE result without ever setting foot in high school.
Tertiary Entrance Guide 2015: Your ATAR and options
First thing’s first: don’t panic. If you haven’t received the ATAR you expected, there are other ways to get into the course you always wanted to do.
'High anxiety' calls flood VCE hotline
Timna Jacks More than 1000 students and parents have already called the hotline, which has been diligently manned by six trained operators, three staff from VCAA and two from the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC).
Sleek SEAL students soar to the top of the achievement charts
Anne Crawford State schools' streamed classes for high achievers come under the sought-after Select Entry Accelerated Learning program and the students who enter the program at year 7 tend to keep doing well all the way to VCE.
Anxious kids miss months, even years of schooling
Timna Jacks It is often mistaken for wagging, but 'school refusal' is a serious behavioural problem.
The pressure principal: meet the head of McKinnon Secondary
Tate Papworth Being a high-achieving non-selective state school produces high demand for places and a lot of pressure to keep improving results. Meet Pitsa Binnion, principal of the highly sought-after McKinnon Secondary College.
Lives transformed by Learn Local
Liz Porter Each year, 50,000 Victorians turn to one of the state's 300 "Learn Local" organisations to help them learn a new skill, get work or go on to further education.
Maths app trial works on memory and the neuroplasticity of the brain
Liz Porter Maths success is based on numeracy and working memory and an app being trialled at a Melbourne primary school, with Monash University neuroscientists' supervision, is assessing if children as young as six can be turbocharged into maths excellence.
Education news in brief
Online tool assesses students' collaborative skills; scholarships available for rural and regional students; a political simulation game engages students; dementia research funds boosted; art historian honoured and young Victorians receive Duke of Edinburgh awards.
Letter to Edwina: what you need to know about life after VCE
Ann Rennie For all the talk about the importance of VCE and ATAR, enjoying and making the most of your life will always be far more important than marks.
ATAR is an access code – no more, no less
David McLean ATAR is the personalised and hard-earned access code that comes to every student at the end of 13 years of study but this PIN is not the sum total of who students are or what they have learnt.
There is more to assessment than number crunching
David McLean Exams sometimes mess with students' minds, and teachers' marking can have the same effect.
One year on: how VCE students from 2014 have survived beyond school
Danielle Kutchel This time last year we met VCE students finishing school and contemplating their futures. One year on, four return to look back on their first year of adult life and it's clear VCE and ATAR are only important for a short period of time.
Department intervenes in case of girl enrolled at two schools
Henrietta Cook The Education Minister has intervened in the case of a 12-year-old girl who was set to attend two high schools because of a bizarre education department ruling.
Opinion, Analysis
The private school myth that doesn't add up
Our grossly inequitable education system is propped up by a lie that even kids would find hard to swallow.
VET sector: a get-rich scheme for shonks and shysters
Competition policy is all very well, but beware the pitfalls of privatisation that led to the great unwinding of vocational education.
VET loans freeze will not stop rogues
The government has been slow to react to claims of fraud in the vocational education sector.
Take a risk – set your child free
Excessive safeguards don't ensure children's long-term wellbeing, quite the opposite. Parents and schools should be facilitating and dreaming of the odd small accident.
We need an ombudsman to protect free state education
The education industry is one of our biggest and most important exports and is not protected by solid governance.
Seasons greetings and a casual goodbye
A year is a long time as a casual academic - a dance of fitting in, being an outsider, getting up to speed, making your mark and then in this, the season to be jolly, it is the time of very casual goodbyes.
Turnbull hints at return to egalitarian education
The new prime minister's statements about education give hope that he will commit to the final years of funding for the Gonski reforms and will use education and opportunity as a key part of economic growth.
Are you letting your kids call the shots?
Children have inflated self-esteem and lack humility because parents are unsure what authority they ought to have and how to exercise it.
Time to close the laptops - and improve learning
Technology was supposed to transform education but there is evidence the enthusiastic rush to teaching with iPads and laptops is harming literacy and numeracy levels.
Why the 'best' university isn't always best for you
A VCE score of 90+ opens many doors but it is a mistake for successful students to be seduced only by prestige and status.
Digital disruption and academia: Are we ready for Uber-versities in 10 years?
The photographic, media, telecommunication and taxi industries have all experienced the pain of digital disruption but academia has so far been immune. That may be about to change.
What if Mr Chips doesn't want to retire?
When today's older teachers retire, the loss of knowledge and experience will be felt across the whole education system.
State schools lead the way in handling sex abuse
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has heard of schools keen to protect their reputations before children. State schools' culture is different and the independent sector could learn from it.
Former Geelong Grammar student reveals school's 'peculiar' culture
Questions now abound for me: why were the teachers almost all single middle-aged men, why were the girl students never invited to dinner ... and was I being groomed for abuse?
School sex abuse: why didn't we do anything?
Geelong Grammar horror stories make us question why kids’ voices went unheard. Will we say the same about detention centres?
Well may we say: who cares? It's clear many schools don't
Children are entrusted to schools and their teachers for 13 years; they spend more waking hours with teachers than parents in those years but it is clear many children leave school feeling no one actually cared for them.
Children with dyslexia need science, not neurobabble
Parents are understandably drawn to programs promising miracle results for their child with dyslexia, but all programs need to be appropriately tested.
Why NAPLAN is a waste of time for year 9s
For year 9s, the focus should be on building and assessing the development of the personal skills and qualities that will determine whether they make a successful transition to adult life.
Kate Ellis: We need to send LGBTI students a message of unwavering support
The importance of eliminating homophobia and transphobia in our schools should not be underestimated.
Send in the writers ... teaching English needs more than analysing Austen
English teachers are required to have a major in English Literature - analysing and understanding others' writing - but students are denied the opportunity of being taught by those with writing degrees. Why?
Victoria: the education state, or ghetto?
Dan Andrews needs to show that he cares about state schools.
