There are 51 selective high schools and 77 primary schools with opportunity classes in NSW.
Applications for the opportunity class test,sat by year 4 students,are on the rise:just over 15,000 applications were received for a place in next year’s classes,compared to 11,741 for 2019.
The number of applicants for selective high schools increased from 14,961 in 2019 to 15,660 applications for 2023. Almost 6000 students accepted places for OC and selective high schools last year.
In April theHerald reported that the number of Indigenous students applying and accepting places was at its lowest level in four years,with just 29 students accepting a spot last year compared with 48 in 2018. But the number of students with a disability taking the test and accepting placeshas more than doubled since 2018.
Associate Professor Jae Jung,from UNSW’s school of education and a lead researcher in gifted education,said it was a “major overhaul to the current selection process” that better supports disadvantaged groups of gifted students to get access to selective classes.
“There are certain groups that are much less likely to get access and there is an acknowledgement that this weakness needs to be addressed,” he said.
Jung said under the changes 75 per cent of places will be determined on the current criteria for entry and 20 per cent of places reserved for students from disadvantaged groups. Another 5 per cent are allocated for students for other special considerations.
Students who get places from disadvantaged groups need to perform within 10 per cent of the minimum requirements accepted from a general applicant.
A spokesperson for the NSW Department of Education said if there are not enough applications to a particular school from students from under-represented groups – or if these students do not meet the minimum requirements – the held places will be offered to general applicants based on their highest performance on the test.
“I expect this will address many of the critics of selective schools and nullify many of the arguments made against selective schools,” Jung said.
Penrith Selective High School principal Mark Long.Credit:James Brickwood
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Penrith Selective High School principal Mark Long,formerly the deputy principal of James Ruse Agricultural High School,said in the past few years Penrith has seen surging demand for places.
The school has about 930 students (about 57 per cent are boys) and more than 90 per cent have a language background other than English.
“Parents have become more aware of the school,our well-being programs and extensive co-curricular and enrichment activities in areas like drama and coding,” Long said. He welcomed the change to reserve 20 per cent of places to try and “more closely represent the enrolment in public schools.”
“I am really excited about making sure that kids who are typically under-represented will get more opportunities,” said Long,noting that the years 5 and 6 opportunity classes at Colyton public school,Richmond,Kingswood feed into Penrith.
“We now have more local Penrith students coming through the school,and partnerships with public primary kids where they will come to our school for maths enrichment and be partnered with year 9 students. The younger kids excited and it really stretches them,it’s also great for students in those middle years to have a leadership role,” Long said.
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Students sat the selective school test at the end of March and OC tests will be taken at the end of this month for places in 2023.
There has also been a recent push to try to make parents more aware of the application process through social media and school newsletters.