How raising the school-leaver's age transformed NSW schools

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How raising the school-leaver's age transformed NSW schools
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Ten years ago the NSW government raised the school-leaver's age from 15 to 17. How have schools changed? | natassiazc

High school principal Craig Petersen used to give "the speech" to his incoming grade 11 students each year. "You’ve made the decision to come back to school," he would tell them. "You didn't have to, but you did. So we’re treating you as young adults and independent learners from now on."

"Being able to go to TAFE one day a week is such a head start. When I leave school I’ll be a second year apprentice straight away." "The argument wasn’t a difficult one, considering that at the time [our leaving age was] so low compared to other jurisdictions. We also had the lowest school retention rate," Firth says.

Principal of Fairvale High School, Kathleen Seto, says the impact was felt most by schools from lower-socioeconomic bands, like hers. They had low resources but faced high costs in setting up alternative structures and non-academic subjects for students forced to stay. Principals reported ramifications such as behavioural issues, non-attendance and disengagement. She says low-socioeconomic status schools were "condemned to innovate".

were designed for a world where few students remained until the end of schooling. "Literacy or numeracy stuff didn’t have to hit the mark with 100 per cent of [students], because they were going to go anyway," he says. "Teacher training was about that world, and it hasn’t changed much." Schools have also observed record-low attendance rates. Senior attendance dropped by 0.7 per cent in 2011, and has not recovered to pre-2010 levels in the decade since. The department attributes this to the raised leaving age, and notes that some year 10, 11 and 12 students forced to stay on would have low attendance.

"The curriculum has emerged over time to be quite different to [what it was] 10 years ago. It was very important for us to recognise the cost of doing nothing, or more of the same, would have been huge," Howe says., offers work placements as well as an on-site cafe, hair salon and daycare centre for students to practice their skills. Hours are flexible, uniform is not required, and students receive formal one-on-one mentoring.

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