From the Principal
Destinations for our 2019 IB graduates
As indicated in our first Newsletter for the 2020 year we have been delighted with the results and tertiary offers achieved by our first ever IB Diploma graduates. In that issue I promised to provide a more complete run down of student destinations.
Our students have taken up places in the following:
- Science
- Science/Law
- Science/Data Science
- Information Technology
- Business Information Systems
- Music
- Fine Arts
- Psychology
- Legal Services
- Design
- Arts
- Arts/Business
Swinburne University of Technology was, this year, the most popular choice with the University of Melbourne and Monash as the second most favoured destinations; RMIT, Latrobe College and Deakin College offering excellent alternative pathways to degrees for a number of students.
Students who achieved less than 24 for their Diploma Programme were all offered places, regardless of their not having received an ATAR, and thus the fear cultivated around the spectre of ‘failing’ the IB was immaterial in the process of tertiary selection.
The increased flexibility of tertiary pathways, entry points and transferability between courses and even institutions aligns perfectly with Preshil’s approach to preparing students for a much more diverse and rapidly changing career landscape, and the IB is the perfect vehicle for this journey.
Ever since our decision in 2012 to transition to an IB only program at the Secondary School we have been cautiously optimistic that this would be a better option for Preshil students as we prepare them for their lives beyond school. Preshil has never seen the ATAR as the finishing post, the defining achievement for our students or the major success indicator for the School.
Importantly, we now find that tertiary institutions are actively supporting the view that the ATAR is an inadequate measure as a determinant of success at the tertiary level. They want more information about secondary graduates than a ranked score based on a student’s four best VCE subject results; subjects so often selected as the most beneficial in calculating the score rather than indications of a student’s interests and talents.
An IB result includes the whole of the course a student undertakes, with no subject being more highly regarded than any other; students can achieve equally, regardless of their preferences. The core, including their individual Extended Essay and their Creativity, Activity and Service project, is not only valued by the IB, but of immense interest to tertiary institutions in considering the suitability of a student for a specific course.
We are now, more than ever, confident that the IB offers a broad, flexible and inclusive secondary school certificate, and the view of the IB as an elite academic program suitable only for the most able few really is a myth.
If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, then the IB pudding makes for very good eating indeed!
Marilyn Smith
Principal