The top-performing VCE schools for 2025 revealed

Nossal High School has recorded its best-ever VCE results, putting the state school among an elite group of Victorian high-performers.

The Berwick select-entry school was one of three in the state to record a median study score of 37. Students excelled in a range of subjects despite the school being geared towards STEM subjects.

Eighteen students received a perfect study score of 50 in areas as diverse as physics, biology, literature, business management and health and human development.

An analysis of Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority data, conducted by The Age, shows these results place Nossal High School alongside seasoned performers Ballarat Clarendon College and Mac.Robertson Girls’ High.

Principal Tracey Mackin singled out the school’s wellbeing team as contributing to students’ success.

“When our kids enter the school [in year 9], they quite often suffer from impostor syndrome,” she said.

“They go from being the smartest kid in their class to arriving at our school and everyone is like them. So we are very alert to that.”

Mackin also credited teaching staff for identifying “the edge of what each student knows” and then extending them.

But she said it was a two-way street and students were also expected to know the areas they needed to focus on and to ask teachers for targeted help.

“It’s about them having a strong awareness of where they’re up to and what the next step is,” she said.

The school achieved a median ATAR of 94.40 and had 38 subjects with an average score above 30, Mackin said.

There were 150 students with ATARs in the 90s, including the school dux, Pawan Cooray, who received 99.90.

The 18-year-old thanked his teachers for their support and said staying focused also played a part in his success.

“My tip for other students is to have a clear, realistic goal that you will do anything to achieve,” he said.

At Camberwell Girls Grammar, just over 27 per cent of study scores were 40 or above this year, giving the independent school its second-best result in a decade.

Forty-four per cent of year 12s received an ATAR above 95, while 55 per cent scored above 90.

The school’s median study score was 36 this year, up on 35 during the COVID years of 2020 to 2023.

This year, the school’s median ATAR was 93.2, with 52 students receiving ATARs in the 90s. Thirty-three subjects had an average score over 30.

But principal Debbie Dunwoody, who has been in the role for 12 years, said the results weren’t just down to a clever cohort.

She said the school’s broad subject offering of 38 unit three and four VCE subjects this year allowed students to choose subjects that they enjoyed and could excel in.

A focus on care and collaboration was also paying dividends.

“Our school motto is ‘useful in service’ and it’s often talked about, so students think beyond themselves a lot and that makes a difference,” Dunwoody said.

Novel activities run throughout the year by students also forged relationships across year levels and counterbalanced the stress, Dunwoody said.

Earlier this year, the year 12 students made a jigsaw puzzle depicting a flag from each of the countries to which students had a connection. The pieces were hidden across the campus and students searched for them to complete the puzzle as a school.

“You have to maintain a sense of fun and balance out study; we want students to build different skills and relationships,” Dunwoody said.

School dux Sunny Sun was one of 14 girls in Victoria to receive a perfect 99.95. She said maintaining school relationships stood her in good stead.

“I stayed grounded by concentrating on what I could improve each day and by staying connected to my friends throughout the year,” Sun said.

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