6 days ago
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
Darcy wants to do HSC Advanced English. His school won't let him
Reported tactics include imposing entrance exams, pre-selecting English streams for students against their wishes, using a ranking system and setting minimum year 10 scores.
The NSW Education Standards Authority sets no such markers. English Advanced is 'designed for students to become critical and sophisticated users of English and to develop their academic achievement through the study of complex texts', its website says.
A small but successful cohort has the effect of boosting a school's English ranking.
An analysis of NESA HSC data shows that some of the state's top 20 comprehensive public schools – all of which fall in the top quartile of socio-educational advantage – have lower-than-average percentages of students taking English Advanced.
At Willoughby Girls High, the state's top comprehensive school, 26 per cent of students took Advanced. Former student Crystal Shi, who graduated in 2020, said the school divided students into classes based on their rank.
In her year, the school ran three Advanced classes in year 11, but told students 'there would only be two classes in the HSC'. At the end of year 11, the results of who made it into Advanced would be displayed on a piece of paper outside the English staff room.
'The class that was dropped in year 12 was based on your ranking, and they gave it some stupid name,' she said. 'So everyone knew you were too stupid to do Advanced, but not bad enough to have been in Standard to begin with.
'They didn't want people who weren't going to be amazing to drag down the weighting. If your ranking wasn't good enough, too bad.
'There was so much pressure on me to perform well, but the system was never set up fairly.'
HSC tutor Katie Ord said some schools required students to do an exam to have 'the opportunity' to do Advanced.
'If the teachers don't think the student will get a band 6, they will discourage them from pursuing Advanced,' she said. 'They are not encouraging growth, investigation and a further passion for English.'
The NSW Department of Education said schools with lower participation rates in English Advanced tended to have higher than average proportions of students from a language background other than English (LOTE).
'Students may seek clarification about a decision on HSC selection by speaking with the head teacher, year adviser or deputy principal,' a department spokesperson said.
Year 12 student Masi Haddad Hachour is at Greystanes High School, which encourages students to do English Advanced. He was shocked to learn many of his friends at study centres, who attend other schools, don't have the same opportunity.
'It makes me feel frustrated, and it impacts everybody because the HSC is a game, and everyone is ranked against each other,' Masi said.
'It's because schools, especially public schools, are so desperate and thirsty for validation from the department through high HSC results. So they do anything they can to get it – that includes forcing some students to drop out so that they don't skew HSC data, forcing some students to do lower scaling subjects like Standard English.'
Many independent and Catholic schools encourage students to enrol in Advanced. The principal of Meriden, an Anglican girls school in Strathfield where 93 per cent of students take English Advanced, says their students 'are reminded not to underestimate their ability, to back themselves and use the resources around them to do their best'.
A current year 11 student at partially selective Chatswood High School, who spoke to the Herald on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals, said the school chose their English course for them. 'There was no opportunity to confirm, challenge, or properly discuss which English course I wanted to do.'
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An internal Chatswood High policy document, seen by the Herald, advises students 'should have a minimum of 80 per cent and be ranked in the top 75 of the Stage 5 Year 10 English course and will need to have previously demonstrated the ability' to do Advanced.
The student was placed in Standard.
'The whole experience really impacted my confidence. I started to question whether I was capable of doing well in English, even though I was genuinely interested and willing to challenge myself in my senior years,' they said.
The Ponds High School enforces an arbitrary prerequisite. A subject selection handbook seen by the Herald states, 'the top 90 students (approximately) of the cohort may be offered a place into the English Advanced course provided they have a weighted average of 75 per cent' based on their year 10 assessments.
Across the state, 36.3 per cent of HSC students take English Advanced while 47.6 per cent take English Standard, based on 2024 data. The remainder take English Studies or English as a second language or dialect (EALD). Every student must choose one of these four.
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A Catholic Schools NSW report, released earlier this year, found the current HSC award system – which recognises only students who achieve a band 6 or mark above 90 – is distorting subject selection and discouraging students from taking more rigorous courses.
Some schools measure their success by the number of band 6s they achieve. The report found it creates an 'incentive for teachers or parents to nudge students towards easier subjects where there is a greater chance of earning an award'.
A former student from another northern Sydney school – who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals – said her teacher was 'consistently' advising her she could drop or change classes, at one point 'sneaking' withdrawal forms into her exams.
'[She said] I would not be on par with the standards of English Advanced even when I was one of the top students of my English Advanced class in year 10,' she said.
Despite her teacher's advice, she stuck with Advanced. It paid off – her HSC marks were 'really, really good'. She scored a band 5 in English and is now studying engineering.
'I didn't realise that maybe there was something wrong with my teacher and not me.'
