This school topped the state for VCE scores, despite having no year 12 students
SOURCE:Sydney Morning Herald|BY:Nicole Precel
Students who golf, figure-skate and work 30 hours a week are among those who returned some of the state’s best VCE results, even if they weren’t in their final year of school.
Its students are excelling in cheerleading and figure skating and topped the state with the highest median VCE scores, but Cranbourne West Secondary College doesn’t even have a year 12 class.
Opened in 2021, the school in Melbourne’s southeast had a median VCE study score of 39, with 40.5 per cent of its study scores 40 or above.
Cranbourne West Secondary College principal Rob Duncan with VCE high achievers.Credit: Joe Armao
Another state school, Clyde Secondary College, which offers only years 7 to 10 and opened in 2022, also had a median study score of 39, with 44.4 per cent of its study scores 40 or higher.
Cranbourne West principal Rob Duncan said the school had 131 study scores, with more than 100 students doing unit 3 and 4 subjects, 25 of whom were year 10 students. The school offered five VCE subjects onsite: general maths, business management, health and human development, data analytics and psychology.
“There were many reasons for their success. Their own hard work, their willingness to do exactly as their teachers asked them, the commitment from the staff, including after-school, online, weekend and holiday classes in the exam lead-up,” Duncan said.
Cranbourne West Secondary student Anusha Dalyia Raj, 17, scored a VCE subject score of 45 in psychology and is also a figure skater and cheerleader.
The school has 2000 pupils from 82 language backgrounds and, as Duncan says,“a really strong learning culture which we have been developing since year 7 with these students.”
Among those who will make up the school’s first year-12 cohort next year is 17-year-old Anusha Dalyia Raj, who received a subject score of 45 in psychology.
Though Anusha currently competes as a figure skater and cheerleader, she says her sights are set on studying biomedicine at Monash University and becoming a doctor.
Dalyia Raj, 17, (top row, second from left) and fellow student Olivia Prasad, 16, (top row, left) both received VCE subject scores above 40 and are competitive cheerleaders.
Ahead of VCE, she said, “My psychology teacher was really good and gives us lots of practice exams, worksheets and, yeah, just helped us out whenever we needed.”
Fellow student Olivia Prasad, 16, competes with Dalyia Raj in cheerleading, Cranbourne West Secondary being one of the few public schools to offer the sport.
Olivia scored a 40 in business management and a 42 in health and human development, and attributes her success to practice exams, reviewing them and assessing where she went wrong.
“For business, my teacher actually marked 500 practice exams. Thirty of them were mine,” she said.
“They went over the contents a lot of times, and I think that helped me. We had holiday classes and weekend classes too. And if you email them something, they would reply straight away,” she said of her teachers.
Extracurricular activities like golf help keep her mind off studying when she needs a break.
Olivia is a keen golfer who wants to be a politician. She scored 40 in business management and 42 in health and human development.
“I get to regulate and just keep moving forward and find new passions,” she said.
“My mum introduced [golf] to me because she thought it would feel like a really good sport, and you get to learn values like patience and discipline, like not showing that much anger, keeping your emotions intact.”
Olivia, who dreams of being a politician, also volunteers at her local MP’s office.
“I just want to make Australia a better place. I want to reduce crime rates as well as suicide rates,” she said.
Cranbourne West Secondary College VCE high achievers (from left) Anusha, Arshnoor, Armaandeep and Abbi.Credit: Joe Armao
Between working 25 and 30 hours a week to help his mother and attending school full-time, Farhad Jan Ali scored a VCE subject score of 41 in business management. The 17-year-old from Clyde North said working helped keep him motivated.
“I’m not really the type of person to stay home all day. It makes me feel a bit lazy, so I just like to be really active,” he said.
Farhad, also a Cranbourne West Secondary student, splits his time between working at Daniel’s Donuts and a pizza shop on weekends, but dreams of becoming an entrepreneur and starting his own fashion business.
“I am currently saving. But I also, at the same time, help my mum pay her expenses, or whatever bill
is needed,” he said.
Farhad says his mother was happy with his results and “honestly, she was really surprised”.
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Like Anusha and Olivia, he attributes his high VCE score to extra study sessions, practice exams and support from his teachers.
Duncan, the Cranbourne West principal, said the school’s psychology and business management and one of its general mathematics teachers were all first-time VCE teachers, while this year’s data teacher hadn’t taught VCE for over 10 years.
He said there was a strong focus on an orderly learning environment, routine and rigour from the moment the new year 7s entered the school.
“We are proud of all of our students and will assist them to achieve their desired post-school destination, be that university, an apprenticeship, traineeship, TAFE or whatever they want or need. All pathways are valued,” he said.
Private school Ballarat Clarendon College had a median score of 37, and 35 per cent of its students achieved study scores of 40 or above.
Select-entry government school Mac.Roberston Girls’ High School followed, with a median of 37 and 34.7 per cent of its students getting study score of 40 or above. Many students took on subjects for which achieving a raw score of 40 or above is particularly difficult.
