My school gives out references. I'm pretty sure we pick them up a couple of days before HSC results are out. They're written by our home-room teachers (called pastoral teachers at my school) and they're generally very positive.
i got mne on graduation, at my school we have mentors which they do the reference, no one else has got theirs, but my mentor is cool... my mum said she cried when she read it XD
Our school gets them when we sign out. That commenced from the 10th. I signed out on the 11th and my maths teacher didn't finish them We figured as much though. He always took FOREVER marking tests etc, no matter how much we asked/badgered XD