Holroyd High School

Holroyd High School's focus is on successful high quality learning in a peaceful, well-disciplined and supportive environment which enables all students to grow and progress as learners and develop the skills for active citizenship. The school is located in Sydney's multicultural south-western suburbs. It is a small, comprehensive, co-educational secondary school with an enrolment of about 430 students in Years 7-12, including a support unit, and 185 students in the Intensive English Centre, where newly arrived students of English as an Additional Language/Dialect (EALD) learn English for up to a year after their arrival in Australia. There are about sixty international students enrolled in the school, mainly in the Intensive English Centre.The school has developed a flexible, innovative curriculum to meet individual student needs, including academic and vocational education and training pathways. The success of these programs has led to a high rate of enrolment in post-secondary education, particularly tertiary studies. Since 2008, approximately 40% of HSC students have taken up university offers. An average of just under sixty percent of HSC students have received university offers 2015-2017. The school has above average attendance and retention rates, and consistently strong value-added results in NAPLAN and the Higher School Certificate. In NAPLAN, value-adding is more than double the state average in numeracy and almost double the state average in literacy.  IEC students are automatically exempt from the NAPLAN tests, but are included in the school's results overall. Comparative data is not available for all students in Years 7 and 9, as many have been in Australia only a short time: 88.3% of students in Years 7-12 are of language backgrounds other than English, with 51% of these students in Australia less than three years. Many  students are of recent refugee background. The school has developed a range of English as a Second Language and literacy, numeracy and transition programs to support these students.Holroyd High School has strong links with universities in the Sydney metropolitan area and is a member of the Australian Business Community Network (ABCN). The school participates in mentoring programs through ABCN (GOALS), the University of NSW (ASPIRE), the University of Sydney (Compass) and Western Sydney University (Fast Forward), and takes part in student leadership programs through High Resolves, NAB Schools First and the Beacon Foundation. Every student in Years 7-12 and the IEC takes part in at least one of these programs. The school also participates in extension and enrichment programs with the University of Sydney, Western Sydney University and the University of Technology Sydney, Opera Australia, the Bell Shakespeare Company, Belvoir Theatre, Mercy Connect, the Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors (STARTTS) and Football United. This level of participation helps create the high expectations and sound performance that characterise the school. The school encourages all its students to have high expectations for their own achievement, and actively fosters student leadership and civic engagement. It is a harmonious and purposeful school; fundamental to its positive and progressive ethos are the cohesive nature of the school community, high expectations and the shared values of respect and responsibility. The school values and celebrates the cultural and linguistic diversity of its students.