11 Feb 2019
As we begin the 2019 school year, I would like to welcome all of the new families joining the Smith’s Hill High School community for the first time. I hope that the first two weeks have been a smooth transition to a new school setting for your child. There are so many new routines, rules and procedures for students to negotiate when coming into a new school setting in addition to having multiple teachers for different subjects every day. I am very impressed with our new cohort of students and I have been receiving a great deal of positive feedback from staff in relation to how well they are settling into our school.
This week we have several significant events taking place, including our first P&C meeting for the year (7.30pm Monday), our annual presentation evening event on Tuesday and our school swimming carnival on Wednesday.
We hold our annual presentation evening in early February to allow all of our highest achieving students (including our HSC students) to be acknowledged and celebrated from the previous school year. In 2018, our HSC students performed extremely well. The school received 73 Distinguished Achievers, 8 All Round Achievers, 3 Top Achievers, two students achieved first place in a HSC course and one student achieved an ATAR of 99.95 - the highest in the State. One of the highlights of the awards ceremony is a short presentation given by several of these high achieving students, sharing their insights into HSC success. The annual presentation evening will take place on Tuesday 12 February, 7.00pm – 8.30pm at the Figtree Anglican Church Auditorium. Everyone is welcome to attend.
At the end of last year, I had several members of our school community mention to me that because of the HSC results (2018), our school ranking had improved. That may be the case, however, I do not believe that this ranking is of any great importance. Firstly, the ranking is based on simplistic statistical data readily available to media outlets who create and publish this ranking for its own purposes. It is the number of HSC Band 6 results relative to the number of HSC examinations attempted by the cohort.
As a school, we strive to provide a holistic approach to the education of students. We support student’s academic success in addition to providing them with the experiences and skills to be successful in life. We have a focus on students striving to achieve their personal best. If we were to change our focus on improving our apparent school rank, then we would not encourage students to attempt courses that they may find challenging, limit students to studying only 10 units and minimise the extracurricular activities on offer at the school. I believe that our school is a great school in which students can experience academic success and life success. I believe that our school’s worth is not defined by a rank, but rather by that of our amazing students who leave Smith’s Hill High School equipped to face challenges and experience success beyond the HSC.
As a school, we will continue to strive to do our very best for all students. In particular, this year our teachers have a common goal of examining the impact of their teaching through the evaluation of teaching and learning programs using evidence, including feedback from students and student assessment data, to inform planning. I look forward to 2019 being a successful year for you and your child here at Smith’s Hill High School.