Selective schools in New South Wales, Australia are government high schools operated by the New South Wales Department of Education that accept their students based upon their academic merit.
Each year, approximately 15,000 Year 6 students across the state of New South Wales optionally undertake the Selective High School Placement Test to seek one of the 3,600 places offered for first-year entry into selective high schools. For Year 8 to Year 12 entry into selective schools, students do not take an external test, however they can apply directly to a school for entry. The application package is standard to all government selective schools, with internal selection committees considering applications each year in August–September.
History
The first government selective high schools in NSW were established in the late 19th and early 20th century. The selective school system at the turn of the 20th century included both schools newly established as selective schools, and older schools with selective entry that were brought into the system. The oldest selective schools included Bathurst High School, Fort Street High School, Goulburn High School and Sydney High School (now Sydney Boys High School and Sydney Girls High School). Many of the oldest selective schools in NSW have always been selective since establishment, including Fort Street (1849), Sydney Boys and Sydney Girls (1883), North Sydney Girls High School (1914), North Sydney Boys High School (1915), Hurlstone Agricultural High School (1959) and James Ruse Agricultural High School (1959).
Before World War II, most of the state's government high schools were selective. In 1957, a government report recommended the conversion of selective schools to comprehensive schools, reflecting changes in education philosophy. As a result, from the early 1960s, most selective schools were converted to comprehensive schools. The conversion was resisted by parents and influential alumni of especially inner-city selective schools such as Fort Street. As a result, a small number of selective schools survived the reforms: Fort Street, Sydney Boys, Sydney Girls, North Sydney Boys, North Sydney Girls, James Ruse and Hurlstone. However, in 1988, the NSW government began increasing the number of selective schools and also made an important reform, abolishing catchment restrictions for selective schools so that any student in NSW could apply to attend any selective school. In 1995, the NSW government under Bob Carr created some partially selective schools (i.e. schools with both comprehensive and selective streams).
In 2010, 14 more comprehensive high schools became partially selective, with one or more classes of selective students, and a "virtual school" bringing together a single class of students from regional NSW.
there are 47 fully or partially selective government high schools, including 17 fully selective high schools (some of which are co-educational and other provide a single-sex educational environment; 25 partially selective high schools (high schools with both selective and comprehensive classes); four selective agricultural high schools; and one virtual selective high school. Of the 47 school, 34 are located in greater metropolitan Sydney.
The Aurora College is a virtual selective high school that caters for students enrolled in government high schools in rural or remote areas in New South Wales. Virtual classes commenced in January 2015 with over 160 students. The school is managed from administrative offices based in . Aurora allows students in rural and remote areas to remain in their local school and community while studying specialist subjects which their home school cannot currently offer. The College uses a range of technologies to access more fast-paced lessons delivered by video and interact with each other, and attend a residential program held twice per year.
Partially selective schools
A number of schools have been designated as "partially selective", in that they have self-contained classes to provide for gifted and talented students in the junior years of high school. Often, schools combine selective and comprehensive streams as students enter the senior years, however, in practice, selective students tend to "self-select" into more advanced classes, such as extension units in Mathematics and English.
Admission and criteria
Profile score
In general, entry into a government selective school is determined by a profile score, which is derived by combining school marks in English and mathematics with the marks received in the Selective High School Placement Test in reading, writing, mathematics and general ability.