The decision comes as demand for prized spots in opportunity classes rises,with applications for places in gifted year 5 and 6 classes jumping by almost 30 per cent in the past five years.
Year 11 and 12 Penrith Selective High School students George Mickhail,Gabriel Cant,Milvia Mathews and Shivangi Agnihotri.Jessica Hromas
A 2018 NSW Education Department of access to the state’s selective schools found there were fewer applications from students from low socio-economic backgrounds,Aboriginal students,those with a disability and students from rural and remote areas.
Minister for Education and Early Learning Sarah Mitchell said the change will set aside up to 20 per cent of places for students from those four groups.
“A student’s academic potential should not be determined by where they live,their background or their disability,” Mitchell said. “We are helping to address the unintended barriers that prevent gifted students from having fair and equitable access to opportunity classes and selective high schools.”
“Every student who gains placement in an opportunity class or selective high school will deserve their place and have the academic talent to fulfil their potential,” she said.
The changes will be implemented this year for 2023 enrolments.
after the review also found a disproportionate emphasis on maths ability in the old test,with boys doing better in those questions.,and that the exams were too easy,making it difficult to separate between bright and very bright students.
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.
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 places.
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.James Brickwood
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.
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.