First they topped the HSC. Now North Sydney Boys is raising the bar

The head of English at North Sydney Boys High, Loveday Sharpington-Recny, is no stranger to the challenge of keeping teenagers engaged in a novel when they could be flicking through an endless stream of TikTok videos.

“The attention span is always difficult. But there’s room for a love of literature and for reading, which we instil from the first day of year 7. We are also constantly challenging students with really high standards,” she says.

An analysis of exam results shows North Sydney Boys achieved an average HSC score of 91.5 across all English courses last year, making it the state’s top-performing public school in that subject.

Sharpington-Recny said enrolments in harder HSC English courses are also rising at the school, with 45 students taking English extension 1 this year, up from 38 in 2024.

It has defied the statewide slump in English extension enrolments; two courses in which girls are twice as likely to take the subjects as boys.

“Traditionally, the students are maths- and science-focused, and by year 12 that can be the path they go down. But we find more and more they are interested in taking extension English.”

She said Albert Camus’ novel The Stranger and T.S. Eliot poems are among the texts year 12 students have most engaged with this year.

“Reading widely is critical for grasping very complex concepts,” she said. “Do students across the state read enough? No. And it’s the same here, and as they get into teenage years they tend to stop reading. We encourage it, provide book lists and ask parents to support reading. The more they read, the better their vocabulary will be.”

Unorthodox methods, including withholding students’ essay marks for 24 hours, are used by teachers to give the class time to absorb feedback. “Once they’ve reflected on the feedback, they get their marks,” she says.

A whole-school writing program to break down essay writing has been rolled out across the school. “It’s not that they’re writing more essays, but we target specific elements of writing like how to construct an argument, how to analyse a text.”

North Sydney Boys, where 95 per cent of students come from a language background other than English, also had 70 per cent of students scoring a band 6 in advanced English last year.

Academically selective schools Normanhurst Boys and Hornsby Girls also scored an average mark of 90 or above across all English subjects. Most selective schools don’t offer standard English courses.

Two girls’ schools, Willoughby Girls and Burwood Girls, achieved the highest average HSC scores for all English courses among the state’s public comprehensive schools, with a mark of 85 or above.

Head of English at Burwood Girls, Tristan Carey, said teachers prepare students for the rigours of the HSC from year 7.

“We want to improve their reading from day one of year 7. Whether it’s moving from an age 7 to an age 8 reading level, or moving from an age 12 to an age 16 level. Students starting year 7 are not reading the amount or at the level that a 12-year-old student should be,” Carey said.

“We have a whole-school approach to reading. Students spend one period each fortnight in a dedicated literacy class.”

Teachers have a focus on writing from the early years of high school, including developing vocabulary, paragraph and essay structure to demonstrate a high level of critical thinking.

He said the difference in reading ability in year 7 creates a “huge diversity” in the class, and it can be difficult to teach certain levels of writing. “If students cannot understand and interpret what they read, they won’t be able to write and demonstrate the level of critical thinking that we’re looking for.”

Year 7 and 8 Burwood Girls students spend 20 minutes a day reading at the start of period three. “We have made reading part of the school culture to set them up for the HSC.” A drama teacher also takes an English lesson once a fortnight.

“By year 10, students are studying Shakespeare and Romantic poetry, which helps them make decisions about which course they want to take. Ultimately, they decide for themselves. We don’t have cut-offs to enrol in advanced courses. But they know the advanced and extension courses will push and extend them.”

The Herald’s analysis of average HSC scores only looked at public schools, which include all averages for each subject in their annual report. Private and Catholic schools are excluded as many non-government schools do not report average subject scores.

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