Education
'Stick with your courage': Advice pays off for Emily as her school tops HSC English
Emily Scarlis is only 16 and scored an ATAR of 99.95. Her school has outperformed James Ruse to be the top school for English in this year's HSC.
- by Jordan Baker and Nigel Gladstone
Latest
School strike for climate
'No point having a good education without a good future': Climate strike organiser's 99 ATAR
Over the past year, a few people – the Prime Minister included – have berated Varsha Yajman for skipping school.
- by Mary Ward
Education
HSC, ATAR results LIVE: NSW Year 12 students receive end of year results
About 75,000 students received their HSC results at 6am followed by their ATARs at 1pm.
- by Pallavi Singhal and Natassia Chrysanthos
Education
'Feels like it's all a dream': 46 students get highest possible ATAR of 99.95
Jocelin Shing-Yan Hon is one of only 46 students - 16 of them girls - across the state to get the highest possible ATAR of 99.95 this year.
- by Pallavi Singhal and Natassia Chrysanthos
High school
HSC results 2019: James Ruse tops the HSC for the 24th time as a bolter takes second
The big movers among the state's top schools have been revealed by HSC data.
- by Jordan Baker and Nigel Gladstone
Education
HSC 2019: How your school ranked
As students across NSW receive their HSC results, schools will also be eagerly examining their performance.
High school
HSC results 2019: student honour roll
Find the distinguished achievers among the NSW students who were awarded their HSC in 2019.
Education
'It took me a second to realise what it meant': HSC class of 2019 delight in results
About 75,000 students have found out their HSC results online or through a text message today. Isabel Crosby, who wants to be a teacher, is delighted with her marks.
- by Mary Ward, Pallavi Singhal, Natassia Chrysanthos and Sian Brain
High school
The students who topped HSC subjects in the class of 2019
Boys were the highest achievers in the 2019 first in course awards, but girls shone in STEM subjects.
- by Jordan Baker and Nigel Gladstone
Private schools
Eunice was partially blinded during her HSC. Then she topped the state in science extension
A rare condition means Eunice Cheng, from James Ruse Agricultural High School, has to sometimes sleep upright - including during her HSC exams. It didn't stop her coming first in science extension.
- by Jordan Baker, Pallavi Singhal and Natassia Chrysanthos
Education
They topped the HSC over the past 40 years. Where are they now?
Ahead of NSW students receiving their HSC on Tuesday, we've tracked down the high achievers of 1979, 1989, 1999 and 2009.
- by Natassia Chrysanthos and Anushri Sood
Exclusive
University
University under fire for mushrooms claim after sponsor revealed
An Australian university has come under fire for spruiking a study into the supposed immune-boosting powers of mushrooms - without revealing it was sponsored by a company that sells mushroom-based immune-boosters.
- by Liam Mannix
Opinion
Opinion
The threat circling human teachers and their profession
Roll-call by facial recognition, automated marking systems and chat bots: the robots are coming to school.
- by Neil Selwyn
National
'People need an extra hour's sleep': Should students get a lie-in?
Later start times could have a domino effect on teachers' lives and city traffic congestion.
- by Madeleine Heffernan
Exclusive
Education
Moment of truth or a failed measure? How the HSC shaped people's lives - or didn't
MP Zali Steggall nervously anticipated her HSC results, while novelist Michael Mohammed Ahmad doesn't care to remember his. How the HSC was important, or not at all.
- by Nick O'Malley
Exclusive
High school
'The kids are OK’: HSC band 6 data reveals the problem with PISA testing
More students are achieving top results in HSC reading, maths and science subjects than they were two decades ago.
- by Jordan Baker
University of Notre Dame
International Baccalaureate teachers have ticket to a world career
If you knew a teaching degree combined with an International Baccalaureate (IB) pathway would make you eligible to teach in more than 100 countries, would you jump at it?
- by Amanda Phelan
Opinion
Opinion
Myths about work worth busting for school leavers
Now is not forever when choosing study and career paths.
- by Dr Patrick Garcia
STEM
Seven study options to combat climate change
The transition to a post-carbon society requires finance, policy and marketing skills alongside scientists and engineers, influencing the uni courses this year's HSC graduates may choose.
- by Fran Molloy
Opinion
Opinion
'Back to basics' is not our education cure - it's where we've gone wrong
While the federal education minister calls for a 'back to basics' approach, an economics professor and a former NSW education minister argue our children need higher-order skills.
- by Richard Holden and Adrian Piccoli
Exclusive
HSC
HSC subject hierarchy can lower students' horizons, says study
The academic hierarchy values interpreting Shakespeare over understanding an engine. But a new study argues this bias hurts disadvantaged students.
- by Jordan Baker
HSC
New year 11-12 maths course teaches payslips, budgeting and taxes
A new maths course is helping students who are at risk of leaving school without the numeracy skills they need for everyday life.
- by Jordan Baker
Schools
Education ministers approve ambitious plan to track students' learning
Education ministers have pushed ahead with an ambitious project to track every students' learning in response to Australia's declining results in international tests.
- by Jordan Baker
Schools
Plans to relocate school ditched as upgrade promised instead
Controversial plans to relocate Hurlstone Agricultural High School to Richmond have been abandoned by the NSW government as part of a new push to promote agricultural education.
- by Pallavi Singhal
University
Merlino calls on universities to make maths a prerequisite subject
Education ministers are set to debate the best response to Australia’s declining performance in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment.
- by Adam Carey
Education
School's $82 million upgrade raises traffic congestion concerns in Sydney's east
More than 200 residents have joined a local protest group and say they feel their concerns are going unanswered.
- by Laura Chung
Exclusive
Schools
Professor with 'pedigree' to lead NSW curriculum, teaching authority
Public policy guru Peter Shergold will be the next chair of the curriculum and teacher standards authority amid calls for reform as results flatline.
- by Jordan Baker
Education
Education Minister pushes for 'back to basics' approach in schools
The federal Education Minister is calling for a rollout of 'learning progressions', saying the technique is key to boosting students' results.
- by Fergus Hunter
High school
Budding journos get gongs for school scoops
Student scribes turned their attention to a hard-hitting analysis of the tuckshop specials board.
Opinion
Opinion
We educate for a purpose, not for a mark
Education is more than skills taught or marks given. Knowledge matters, but even knowledge must bow to wisdom.
- by Briony Scott
Opinion
Opinion
Should Australia be in PISA shock?
From every viewpoint, the Australian PISA results were a bad set of numbers. Should we be in shock, asks an Australian who led the OECD's latest global test of 15-year-olds.
- by Peter Adams
Schools
'Bringing history to life' through rare Holocaust artefacts
No one knows who owned the shoe, the hairbrush or the make-up compact. They were found in Auschwitz at the end of the war, when the world was only beginning to understand the horrors that unfolded in Hitler's concentration camps.
- by Anushri Sood
Education
'No difference' between public and private schools after accounting for socio-economics
International test results reveal Australian students perform no better academically if they attend a private school over a public school once socio-economic background is taken into account.
- by Natassia Chrysanthos
Exclusive
Education
Hundreds of millions lost from vocational scheme
Private colleges that rorted the vocational training system have avoided repaying tens of millions of dollars in penalties as former students continue to suffer
- by Farrah Tomazin
Exclusive
Education
Government rejects bipartisan call for more scrutiny of school funding
Amid continual declines in student results, the government is facing pressure to make sure its spending is effective.
- by Fergus Hunter
Opinion
HSC
For 20 years our students have been slipping - but money is not the answer
How we structure principals' salaries must be part of the conversation if we are to improve international rankings.
- by Sarah Mitchell
Schools
Don't downplay HSC, NSW Education Minister tells teachers
Educators need to re-embrace the "hard truth" that marks matter, says NSW Education MInister Sarah Mitchell
- by Jordan Baker
PISA
While individual schools might shine, PISA results show our education system is stagnating
Education ministers were disappointed by the results. As they were last time. But between PISA cycles, timidity and divisions stymie bold reform.
- by Jordan Baker
Naplan
NAPLAN faces its biggest test
A review of NAPLAN has proposed major change including shifting the test to the start of the school year to stop schools “wasting time” teaching to the test.
- by Adam Carey and Jordan Baker
Exclusive
University
'Don't overreact': Gareth Evans warns against alarm about foreign interference on university campuses
Australian National University chancellor and former foreign affairs minister Gareth Evans has warned the Morrison government not to be "spooked" about China's influence on university campuses.
- by Anthony Galloway
Pollution
Many schools close, cancel playtime and sport because of poor air quality
Schools are keeping children inside from the time they arrive to the time they leave to protect them from threats to their health from bushfire smoke.
- by Julie Power
Education
New award set to give teachers a pay rise
NSW teachers have returned to work after stop-work meetings across the state on Thursday morning to settle a long-running wages agreement.
- by Anna Patty
Opinion
Opinion
Sleepless, distracted and glued to devices: no wonder students' results are in decline
A leading educator confronts the latest alarming results for Australian school students. Don't panic, he says. Give them the tools for a healthier education.
- by Pasi Stahlberg
PISA
Australian students 'among the worst in the world' for class discipline
Australian classrooms are among the least disciplined in the world, according to a global survey, with many students reporting that they cannot work well.
- by Adam Carey
Ramsay Centre
Ramsay Centre walks away from Sydney University
Sydney University vice-chancellor Michael Spence said he was baffled by the decision, given academics had spent the past few months working with staff to design a proposal.
- by Jordan Baker
Schools
PISA tests put fewer NSW students among the world's brightest
As the number of students among the world's brightest falls, Australia risks becoming less competitive globally, experts warn
- by Jordan Baker
Education
Why are Australian students lagging behind Canada?
PISA national project manager, Sue Thomson, said a key difference was Canada had focused on lifting the performance of its disadvantaged students.
- by Natassia Chrysanthos
Education
'Be ambitious, refocus the agenda': Tehan on flagging student results
Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan has called on his state counterparts to be bold and embrace reforms that put literacy and numeracy "at the heart of anything we do".
- by Paul Sakkal
Opinion
Opinion
More testing is not the answer to declining international maths results
The consequences of our current system is that students see themselves as "doing maths" in class, but they do not see themselves as mathematicians.
- by Karen McDaid
Opinion
Opinion
Focus on basics leaves schoolkids short in essential deep thinking
Australian 15-year-olds’ performances are declining in deep thinking and problem solving – the areas most in demand in the future.
- by Geoff Masters