Leadership's Letter

December is the time of year when all the results seem to come at once. VCE students are awaiting their study scores and ATAR, junior school students are receiving their reports and exam results, and senior students are re-evaluating their subject selections for 2024. It is always valuable to place these results into two very important contexts.

The first context is the personal context. Before looking at any other results or measures, such as medians and means, it is best to ask ourselves whether this result reflects my best effort and whether for me it is a personal achievement I am proud of. I can remember vividly a student in my Religion and Society class from five years ago who received an extraordinary result for him. That student received a score that was the culmination of two years of hard work personal sacrifice an extraordinary success. His numerical score was lower than others in the class, but it was a fantastic reward for his best efforts all year. When he received his score, he was elated, and his family was exceptionally proud of his efforts. Many students will receive scores this December that exceptional measures of success and validation for the hard work they have put in this year. I encourage you to take the time with your sons to celebrate the successes they've had this year. I have the privilege of working with Year Level Coordinators in recognising student success and achievement through awards, and I am constantly delighted to see the variety of names of students who are achieving different levels of success, whether that's Commitment and Perseverance, Christian Leadership, or academic awards.

The second context is the numerical context. Particularly for VCE results which are coming out on the 11th of December the numerical result that students receive can be very confusing at times. VCE study scores are measured on a scale from 0 to 50 with the average being set at exactly 30. The scores themselves are a relative measure and whilst they're based on exam results and grades in schoolwork, 70% in one subject and 70% in another subject may not equate to the same study score. Since they are a relative measure, they describe how well a student has completed the subject in comparison to other students. What is particularly confusing is that they are not linearly distributed. This means that the number of students who receive a score of 30 is not the same as the number of students who receive a score of 37 or 44. The schools are distributed according to the normal distribution with the most common score being 30 and scores being less common the further away from 30 the score is. What this means is that for a student to move their score from 30 to 33 they have to perform better than a significantly large number of students, whereas the student who wishes to move their score from 40 to 43 has to perform better than a smaller number of students. A student who receives a score of 30 has completed their subject with results better than 50% of the whole state cohort, whereas a student who receives a score of 33 have completed the subject with results better than 67% of the whole state. Even though 30 to 33 seems like a small jump it is a significant jump in terms of their relative performance. Below are some example;

I hope that these two contexts are valuable to you and your family at this time of the year. I will never forget that student in my Religion and Society class from five years ago. His score of 31 was an amazing achievement. He and his family were rightfully proud of him.

I also hope that your family is blessed this Christmas with the joy and peace that comes from Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless you and your family and I look forward to seeing you in 2024.

Kyle Hoad

Dean of Data, Systems & Analysis