Bulletin

Cape Byron Rudolf Steiner School students achieve outstanding HSC Results

Cape Byron Rudolf Steiner School is celebrating its best ever HSC results in the school’s 30-year history. One third of the graduating class has received an ATAR of well over 90, placing students in the top 10% of the entire state. This is unheard of for such a small school.

Principal, Nerrida Johnson commented, “Our students have worked really hard this year and have achieved outstanding results. The combination of dedicated and mature students working with passionate and skilled teachers has produced this best-ever result for the school. Our graduating students are rightfully thrilled this morning; with results like these, they will be able to go on to pursue the study or career of their choice.” Nerrida said, “I’d like to thank our dedicated staff and committed parents for helping guide these beautiful souls through their education. We are proud of every single one of our graduating students, they are truly ready to step out into the world.”

Outstanding results have been achieved in English Extension 1 and 2, Legal Studies, Drama, Music, Mathematics, Society and Culture, Visual Arts, Physics, languages and many other courses.

The cohort of 27 students showed dedication, commitment, a passion for their subjects and a shared support for each other that has resulted in excellence across the board. Overall, there were 30 Band 6 results (scores over 90) and 49 Band 5 results (scores between 80 and 89). This is a jump from our already impressive 2018 results of 18 Band 6 achievements,

Students are thrilled that they will gain access into their first choice of course at universities such as University of Melbourne, Sydney University, Monash, Griffith and ANU, as well as overseas institutions.

Stand-out results include Ella Hill-Smith, who received top band results in her three Extension courses, English 1, 2 and History. Lily Harrison received top band results in Legal Studies, Society and Culture and English Extension 1 and 2, whilst Abbie Walden received top band results for English Extension 1 and 2, Visual Arts and Society and Culture. Kalani Knight received Band 6s in Chemistry, Mathematics and Legal Studies. Luka Biggin-Johnston received 97% for Music and has been selected to play at the Sydney Recital Centre as part of HSC Encore and Paddy Swain achieved Band 6 results in Drama, Mathematics 2 and Music.

With an increasing emphasis on STEM subjects in the school, students received Band 6 results in Chemistry and Mathematics and Band 5 in Physics and Mathematics Extension.

As always, students excelled in performance subjects: 30 % of Drama students gained a Band 6, in Music all students achieved a Band 5 or 6, and in Visual Arts students continued to show their creative strength with yet more Band 6 results.

Principal, Nerrida Johnson and Senior School Coordinator, Katie Biggin are thrilled with the efforts of our students and passionate teachers.

Hello everyone,

Time seems to have flown by this year and now, suddenly, we are in the last week of school. It has been a big year of teaching and learning across the school. In a school, every day is a day filled with little victories; mastering the 7 times tables for the first time, playing the first clear note on the violin or cello, reading a book all the way through to the end for the first time, delivering an oral presentation in front of an audience, making a new friend, completing Ric’s dreaded ‘beep test’ in PDHPE, performing at a showcase, sitting a first exam and completing a major work for Year 12. These are the little victories that happen every day as part of the learning journey and we rarely get the time to stop and celebrate them. I would like to thank our beautiful students for their work and dedication and also the parents for supporting their children on this journey. I would like to particularly thank our dedicated, talented and amazing teachers, who deeply care for their students and skillfully guide them on this journey.

Last week we were informed that Luka Biggin-Johnston has been selected to perform at HSC Encore, a performance at the Sydney Recital Centre in March 2020. The concert is a selection of exemplary pieces of HSC Music performances from all over NSW from the 2019 HSC Music exams. Luka is very excited about the prospect of playing his bass in Sydney and will be performing the Stevie Wonder song, Boogie on Reggae Woman. Luka will be travelling to Sydney with his funky band (teachers Mat on drums and Tim on guitar and fellow student Paddy Swain on keyboard and vocals). I congratulate Luka for his well earned success, it is good to see his work recognised, particularly as he has been a strong supporter of our HSC music students over the last few years. I would further like to congratulate both Luka and Paddy for having their music viva voces recognised by the New South Wales Education Standards authority as being exemplary. This is a wonderful achievement. Congratulations to Mat, their talented music teacher for guiding these students so well.

In other news, Cape Byron Rudolf Steiner School was named in a recent newspaper article as the top performing school in the Northern Rivers region for Year 9 Naplan results over the last 5 years. This is a really interesting and gratifying result as we do not teach to the Naplan tests, rather we provide a measured, well-rounded and developmentally appropriate education which provides a solid base of literacy and numeracy skills whilst steadily developing creative and critical thinking capacities in our students. Details of the article can be found further in this newsletter.

It has been a busy year, not without its challenges, and I know that everyone is ready for the break. I would like to close by thanking all of the administration and support staff who work so hard to make sure the wheels of the school keep turning. I would also like to thank the Board, who have worked diligently and with great focus all year and the P&F and Class Coordinators who do so much work behind the scenes.

Please all enjoy the break, I look forward to seeing you back at school at the beginning of next term.

Peace
Nerrida