Canberra Grammar School is delighted to congratulate the Year 12 students of 2015 on an outstanding performance in the Higher School Certificate (HSC). With results for almost 20% of the year group who sat the International Baccalaureate still to be published in January, the HSC students have already produced one of the School’s strongest overall outcomes on record.
Individual and subject performances this year were amongst the School’s very best over the past decade and they stand as tribute to the hard work and high aspirations of students and staff alike.
Three students are to be congratulated on gaining placements in the top ten of the state:
- Patrick Hendy placed 3rd in Modern History; he also attained full marks in English Extension 2
- Jonathan Moore placed 2nd in Agriculture; and
- James Treloar placed 7th in Software Design and Development.
In addition, we congratulate nine students on gaining places on the All Round Achievers’ List for attaining over 90% in 10 or more of their units: Shane Arora, Sahil Chopra, Brendan Falk, Patrick Hendy, Ivan Ip, Kevin Jacob, Ryan Jeffreson, Joshua Martin and Stephen Melhuish.
Likewise, we congratulate the School Captain, Brendan Falk, who was dux of the School’s HSC cohort with a superb overall result of 99.85.
Once again this year, upper band results in the great majority of subjects were well beyond state percentages in Bands 5 and 6, with especially strong performances in the following subjects in which Band 6 percentages alone significantly exceeded the state percentages:
- Agriculture: 75% Band 6 compared with 7% for the state
- Software Design and Development: 75% Band 6 compared with 8% for the state
- Ancient History: 43% Band 6 compared with 8% for the state; and
- Biology: 23% Band 6 compared with 6% for the state.
In addition, students taking Chemistry, Modern History, History Extension and General Mathematics attained at least triple the state percentage in Band 6, while Economics, Physics and French Continuers students at least doubled the state percentage at Band 6. Efforts and changes in English in recent years also saw a threefold increase in top level results in Advanced English.
Schools taking the HSC under the New South Wales system do not receive ATARs and cannot therefore produce ATAR statistics*. Nonetheless, as a non-selective school, Canberra Grammar School is especially proud that students gained 152 places on the HSC Honour Roll for top Band results, with 44% of all HSC students earning a place on the Distinguished Achievers’ List for attaining 90% or more in at least one of their subjects. 86% of students achieved at least one result in the top two bands, and 61% of all results attained were in the top two bands. 98% of students will graduate with an ATAR, with the vast majority achieving ATARs above 65.
These excellent results will be augmented in January by grades for students taking the International Baccalaureate. In the meantime, it must be stressed that figures in league tables published by the Sydney Morning Herald and others exclude almost 20% of our students’ results and are therefore likely to be lower than would be expected if all results were included.
Finally, as the students of Year 12 2015 prepare to take the next steps in their education and careers, we congratulate them on their superb success and we thank them for their very fine leadership of the School.
*Please note that unlike other ACT schools, Canberra Grammar School offers the NSW Higher School Certificate, which is a challenging and academically rigorous qualification that tests a total cohort of 70,000 students through a combination of school-based assessments and public examinations. The NSW Board of Studies does not release ATARs to schools, so the School is not able to provide ATAR statistics. The School also offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, for which results are released in January.
