A Herald analysis of this year’s HSC reveals the state’s public selective schools dominated the top five places in 2022,with North Sydney Boys in second,followed by Baulkham Hills and North Sydney Girls. Reddam House was the strongest-performing private school in fifth place,eclipsing the academically selective Sydney Grammar in sixth.
Killara High was the state’s best performing comprehensive public school,leaping more than 120 places to 55th. It is the school’s best result in at least seven years.
Willoughby Girls followed closely in 66th spot,with Epping Boys at 68th,while Cherrybrook Technology High - where mathematician Eddie Woo is a teacher - came in at 81st. Killara had a success rate of 24 per cent,up from 10.73 per cent in 2021.
Four private schools have muscled into the top 10,with Abbotsleigh in seventh and SCEGGS Darlinghurst rounding out tenth place. The highest-ranked independent schools all charge year 12 fees of more than $35,000. Two-thirds of the top 50 schools this year are independent schools.
Of the state’s top 150 schools,25 were state selective schools,19 were comprehensive public schools,23 were Catholic schools and the rest were independent.
Killara High’s principal Robin Chand,who has been teacher at the school for 15 years and principal since 2021,said the school’s success is due to a “laser-like focus on teaching and learning at our core”.
“We are a big public comprehensive high school with just over 1600 students,and we accept every student that walks through the gates,rather than entry according to ability. The results are because of the dedication of our teachers,” Chand said. ”We teach our students that there are no shortcuts to success,it’s about grit,and that achievement rests on the incredible work ethic of students and staff.“
SCEGGS principal of 27 years Jenny Allum said while her school made the top 10 this year,she believed how HSC performance is measured - as a proportion of students who scored in the highest band - is fundamentally flawed.
“For some kids,89 is an amazing performance,far better than they could have ever had expected,and for some kids,65 is a good mark,” Allum said.
The top Catholic systemic school was the $5652-a- year Parramatta Marist High School which came in 57th place,followed by Xavier Catholic College in Ballina on the state’s North Coast which was 61st followed by Brigidine College at Randwick in 67th spot.
James Ruse principal Rachel Powell said it was “always a bit of a stressful morning” before results were released.
The school - which was first set up as a farming school and has finished first since 1996 - generally has the highest cut-off in the selective school entry test.
“Lots of our year 12 students want to go on to study medicine and law,but this year we are seeing many keen on software engineering,cybersecurity and computing,” Powell said.
More boys than girls received the perfect ATAR of 99.95. Of the 48 students who achieved the top rank,19 were girls and 29 were boys. Girls had a higher median ATAR of 72.45,compared to just 69.85 for boys. UAC will release offers to year 12 students on December 22,and students have until Friday midnight to finalise their course preferences for this round.
In a year when Mullumbimby High was decimated when the northern rivers experienced record-breaking floods,there was some long-awaited good news. It made the top 20 public comprehensive school list and jumped from 537th to 146th.
At Baulkham Hills High - the public selective school with the highest number of first-in-course awards - principal Wayne Humphries said despite years of pandemic-induced disruption students are “incredibly self-motivated.”
“It is always so close among the top schools. We have more than 1200 students,so we try to make sure we have a broad curriculum,and a range of subjects from maths to Korean and software design,” he said.
Parramatta High,which is partially selective,is up 50 places to 116,which is the school’s best result since 2016.
Of the total schools in the top 150,comprehensive public schools had 19 in the top echelon,three more than last year,and independent schools had 83 in the top ranks,four more than 2021. Catholic schools and selective schools had slightly fewer on the top list.
All schools in the top 20 rankings were in the highest ICSEA percentiles - an index that measures students’ socio-educational advantage - at either 98 or 99.
Greenacre’s Al Noori Muslim School has finished in 26th,moving up consistently in the past seven years,while Hills Grammar has climbed 40 places in a year. Loreto Kirribilli was 12th,its best performance in several years.
There were 1400 all-rounder students - those who achieved band 6s for 10 or more units – with James Ruse,Baulkham Hills,Sydney Grammar and North Sydney all with 50 or more students on this list.
Thomas Henderson from Sydney Grammar received nine band 6 results,more than any other student,acing ancient history,history extension,English advanced,English extension 1 and 2,Classical Greek continuers,classical Greek extension,Latin continuers and Latin extension.
Of the top 10 private schools,seven were single-sex girls schools,with Bondi’s Reddam House the only co-educational independent school.
Baulkham Hills High School students,Daniel Wang,Nandini Karri,and Mahathi Ramasubramanian,with Principal,Wayne Humphreys.Janie Barrett
At fourteen fully selective schools,student success rates went backwards,and most of the state’s partially selective schools also saw less success this year.
To calculate school and subject rankings theHerald uses band 6 and E4 (the top result for extension subjects) data from the NSW Education Standards Authority which shows marks of between 90 and 100 or 45 and 50. A mark in the mid-70s or a band 4 is about the average for most courses and NESA only provides band 6 and E4 HSC data.
The data is not adjusted for socio-educational advantage,so most of the schools in the top 150 teach students from the higher quartiles of advantage. The Herald will do a separate analysis to take socio-educational advantage into account and publish the results in the coming days.
A 2021 found schools with a higher ICSEA score in all sectors have an increasing concentration of highly economically advantaged students,while the trend is reversing in lower SES schools.
Tell us your story at to be part of our HSC live coverage.