Principal
This week the rubber has hit the road for Year 12 staff and students in the new era of Senior assessment and tertiary entrance.
As Year 12 parents will know, Seniors who are on an ATAR pathway have this week commenced the assessment period for Internal Assessment 1 (IA 1). For each student there will be a further two pieces of Internal Assessment during the course of the next two terms before students complete their External Assessment (EA) in late October and November. These four pieces of assessment are combined and used in a final calculation by QTAC to generate an ATAR score. In essence, the score’s sole purpose is to enable entrance into an appropriate tertiary course. This is, of course, an important purpose, but beyond that the ATAR score has little utility.
Much like the OP system that preceded, it is likely that the ATAR results will become, for some people and some organisations, a means to judge the quality of a school. Our Deputy Principal Mr David Johnston wrote recently in this newsletter about the interpretation of Year 12 results in the former system based on OP scores, and how judgements can be falsely made about the success, or otherwise, of particular schools.
Whatever might be said about the qualities of the schools themselves, often what is lost in this shallow conversation is that the scores are attained by students, not schools. These students are young people finding their way in life and about to embark upon life beyond school. Does an ATAR score, whether it be high or low, define a young person? Does an ATAR score capture all the gifts and talents as well as flaws and limitations of each young person? Does the score tell us anything about the challenges faced by some young people in dealing with mental ill-health, dysfunctional family situations or the myriad of complexities that are negotiated by young people today? Does an ATAR score tell us how much one young person has improved to gain this score? The obvious answer to any of these questions is no.
What an ATAR does tell us is that at this point in time this is where a young person is placed academically. Importantly, the higher the ATAR school the greater the range of tertiary study opportunities that are available. It provides the means by which a young person is enabled to take their next step on their life long journey of learning. The score itself is no guaranteed predictor of future success. Similarly, a low score is not a limit to future success.
Most adults know friends and family members who did not succeed academically at school and who have gone on to be successful and fulfilled in life in all sorts of ways. We might also know young people who finish school with good results but who never quite translated this into further success and happiness. For others, academic success only comes later in life when they find a passion not uncovered through formal schooling.
Further to this, there is evidence that academic success, whether at school or at a tertiary level, is no longer a guarantee of employment. In 2018 the Queensland Public Service took on 2,160 graduates into 20 agencies across Queensland, stating that the skills that gave graduates an advantage were emotional intelligence, creativity, critical thinking and learning agility. In the Deloitte Access Economics 2019 report titled ‘premium skills: the wage premium associated with human skills’, four skills were identified with the greatest shortages: customer service, organisation and management, digital literacy, and leadership.
Largely, the skills listed above are not intrinsically linked to, nor measured, by an ATAR score. So, while the College is striving hard to provide the best possible opportunity for our Year 12s to achieve their best possible result at the end of the year, as an educator I know that there are personal qualities that cannot ever be measured by an ATAR score. I know that there are personal stories of the lives of our young men that cannot ever be captured by an ATAR score. I know that the score itself matters only for a fleeting amount of time and that what is more important is what the individual does with that score in further study, in training, in work or a combination of them. Furthermore, what matters over time is how that individual fulfils their God-given potential. In a Nudgee College context, what really matters is how they use that potential to improve their own lives but also the lives of others, particularly the poor and needy.
In conclusion, two significant occasions coincide on Friday. Our boys are competing in the GPS Swimming Championships and we wish the squad, led by Lachlan Gilbert (Captain), Tom Raymond and Finlay Schuster (Vice Captains), all the very best. We also acknowledge International Women’s Day (IWD) around the College. IWD was a feature at Tuesday’s Assembly and we honour all those female members of staff for their simple presence, generous commitment and valuable contribution that they make in their many and diverse roles at the College.
Mr Peter Fullagar
Principal