sikeveo said:
sefton will never go well. Look at the demographics and socio economic status of its location.
What about James Ruse? I mean the "socio economic status of its location" is nowhere near as high as the city of Sydney, yet they manage to top the state for nine years in a row. Also, when Jaggar was in control of our school, Sefton did go well and was usually in the top 20. Once he left, he took our good students with him.
Well for my school, just about everyone (besides the community people) comes from the Fairfield/Cabramatta region. I've noticed a lack of curry people in our grade because the school is bombarded by SE asian people who are pumped out of that region. Our grade mainly consists of lebs, asians and 'aussies'. (Actually come to think of it I don't think we have any more than 5 curry people in our grade)
Anyway, we could have been at least in the top 30 if we were a fully selective school and not a semi-selective school. The only reason we're so crap is because of our english. We were never taught the norms of writing and analysing text types properly and analysing with language techniques because they assumed we knew them since Year 7. Pff...As if we did! All we did during our junior years in English was either closely study a text or study a theme/concept periodically.
On the other hand, we're alright for a selective school in Maths (DA in Maths is usually similar to that of Fort Street) and we managed the top 30 in Maths last year. That's pretty good for a semi-selective school and good compared to our overall rank. Compare the pair:
In English, it is pretty much a bludge. Hardly any homework is given out. There are hardly any exams other than assessment tasks and we are not encouraged to study because according to the teachers, English cannot be studied until senior years. Even if we actually do an exam, we don't go through it at all after we get it back. There's only comments which always say good work and the mistakes we make are hardly corrected and gone through as a class.
In Maths, we're constantly working. Textbook exercises are always there to be completed. We are constantly writing notes and having topic tests every fortnight or so in addition to assessment tasks and they always tell us to study hard for everything. (Merit awards for top 3 lol) After every topic test or any other test, we take time to go through it and correct our mistakes and we LEARN FROM THEM.
Sefton is crap for a selective school, I know that. Sefton is only good for a top semi-selective school.
Either way, if my school doesn't do well, at least I know that I can do well.
I reckon that James Ruse, North Sydney Girls, North Sydney Boys, Sydney Girls and Hornsby Girls will revolve around the top 5, with Sydney Grammar and Baulkham Hills not too far behind. I think Sydney Boys may hover around the low teens and occasionally enter the top 10, with Fort Street and Sydney Technical hovering around the top 20. If you think not, then prove me wrong...