The secret of the success of James Ruse Agricultural High School     032

Near the end of a quiet suburban street, Felton Road, in Carlingford Sydney, is a seemingly small, almost unattractive looking, high school. But this is the home of a school noted for its high academic achievement, in fact consistently the highest in this country. This school is an agricultural high school which means children have to study agriculture as one of the school subjects. Indeed the school has a small farm where children can interact with real animals. Exactly what is the secret of the school’s success?  As I will show in this entry the secret is that there is no secret, and that mostly what happens at James Ruse could happen in other schools, and it can certainly happen with individual students and families.

Just how good is this school? On the school website the principal says that they are proud of their “outstanding Higher School Certificate results”. However to describe the results as outstanding hardly does them justice. In 2015 nine students achieved an ATAR of 99.95, and in five subjects James Ruse students obtained first place. But there’s more, a lot more. James Ruse has achieved first ranking 20 years in a row.

These first place results are very decisive victories. For the last few years I examined the NAPLAN scores combined for reading, writing and numeracy, Years 7 and 9. I also examined the success rate at which students enter the state honour roll which requires a subject score of at least 90 per cent. The results of my research show that, on average, James Ruse in the NAPLAN tests scores about 3.5 per cent better than the school in second place, while the difference between the second and third schools is about 1.5 per cent. The success rate of placement on HSC merit lists, adjusted for the size of schools, shows a similar pattern—other schools seem unable to mount an effective challenge.

Only five or ten minutes on the Internet will reveal a wealth of comments from existing and past students, and others, on the characteristics of the school. Typical comments are that the school is composed of geniuses, where being smart is not special; a school where students are pushed to their limits and made more intelligent. There are also quite a range of negative comments. One of these is that the school does not build a complete all-round student, and that the students have a narrow pressured life.  An examination of the school website shows however that students at James Ruse do participate in a wide variety of activities, possibly more than most other high schools. On the website it is also stressed that the school focuses on “the whole person” and wants students to be “wonderful responsible young people who are full of the enjoyment of all aspects of life”. Although there is possibly too much repetition of this idea, high achievements does require a balanced life, and indeed participation in non-academic activities probably refreshes and stimulates the brain, as well as building good health, which is also necessary for academic concentration and success.

On the website is an explanation of how teaching and learning activities proceed. The school apparently uses an “embedding cognitive technologies” approach to improve academic performance, and part of this is providing a “sense of audience for the learner” and a means of “reflecting back his or her thoughts”. There are a number of quotations from learning theorists about providing for the gifted and talented and there is also a list of 13 academic references on the subject with contributions from well known theorists such as Bloom and Gagne. Some 17 links are provided to information about gifted and talented education. This part of the website—something which is read by parents and other people—is quite unusual, and for a high school, surprisingly academic. One could speculate about all the reasons for this information but one point is clear, the school takes its task of fostering academic performance quite seriously.

A quite different part of the school website is the code of conduct in which children are to be “respectful of each other… complete homework assignments on time… be prepared for class and arrive on time… [and] “put rubbish in the bin”.  Quite ordinary you might think. But James Ruse is a school where these things are put into practice. The reason for this is that the school community, made up of students, teachers, parents and others, expects it.

Indeed expectation at the school is very high. Students listening to teachers, teachers listening to students, and students listening to students can become very intellectually stimulating. It takes class discussion to a much higher level of critical analysis, because everyone is working as a team. This is why the code of conduct says that children must be prepared for class, that is, prepared to make a contribution to what is a team effort.

Arriving on time is another expectation. Use of time is very important—there are only six hours in a school day. So at James Ruse at the end of lunchtime children arrive promptly at the classroom so the class is not interrupted by late comers. As the lesson reaches its end children continue to concentrate. There is no packing up five or ten minutes before the end of the period as is so common in other schools. So children at James Ruse obtain at least an extra 15 per cent of learning each day, just through the effective the use of time.

Throughout the website parents are praised as members of “this vibrant community”. Indeed on the school’s website parents are praised far more than is usual. Is this just decoration?  The truth is that James Ruse parents are very committed and so other students, and commitment one important aspect of why James Ruse is so successful. The school is difficult and time consuming to reach by public transport because of its location. I know of one student who travelled three hours a day to reach the school when she could have attended a school such as North Sydney Girls, where there are also many talented children. A second measure of commitment is the fact that students at the school have to study agriculture, a subject which not many would enjoy or be interested in. Not many James Ruse students become farmers. But there’s more. A number of parents actually buy or rent houses near the school, completely dedicating their lives to supporting their son or daughter. So if this school has any magic—and many believe that it does—it’s magic supported in part by commitment, and commitment often involving sacrifice.

Indeed in many ways as this concept of the school as a community, with community members working together, is a concept which is very far reaching at the school. Everyone is there for a purpose—to help the students be as successful as they possibly can, and everyone contributes in his or her own way. A specialist in schools systems at the University of Melbourne, Professor Richard Teese (see Anna Patty & Andrew Stevenson, Top school’s secret weapon, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 Sep 2010, and available online at www.smh.com.au) said that the “pooling of high achievers… multiplies their impact… [giving] distinctive advantages…”.

So the secret of success at James Ruse turns out to be perhaps ordinary and perhaps even disappointing. But that’s the inspiring thing about it, what happens at James Ruse can happen at other schools, and happen for individual students and families. Commitment, high expectation, and improved and more concentrated teaching learning activities in the classroom are what make the difference. At any school parents teachers and students can choose to work together, can choose to do homework, can choose to come prepared to lessons, and can choose to listen to each other in the classroom and try to take everyone to a higher conceptual level. These are ideas which are easily understood but putting them into practice is painful hard work. The school motto is ‘Gesta non verba—deeds not words’ and it is certainly appropriate.

All content copyright—Mark Thackray—Australian Educational Services