Thursday, February 07, 2013

15/25

Trawling through the web, looking for something else, I came across an old (2005) statistic from England, pointing out that out 93 of their top 100 schools (ranked by Times according to GCSE results) had Classics department, and that, even more impressively, 24 of the top 25 offered Latin.

Out of interest, I thought I'd put together a similar list for NSW Schools, based on the Sydney Morning Herald's rankings from last year's HSC.

2. North Sydney Boys High School
3. North Sydney Girls High School
4. Sydney Girls High School
5. Baulkham Hills High School
8. Sydney Boys High School
9. SCEGGS Darlinghurst
10. Sydney Grammar School
12. Kambala
13. Frensham
17. Pymble Ladies' College
18. Abbotsleigh
19. SHORE - Sydney Church of England Grammar SChool
21. St George Girls High School
23. Presbyterian Ladies College Sydney
24. Ravenswood School for Girls
26. Meriden School
28. Ascham School
30. St Aloysius' College
37. Loreto Normanhurst*
39. Gosford High School*
40. The King's School
42. St Catherine's School
44. MLC School
45. Barker College
47. Queenwood School for Girls
49. St Ignatius' College
54. Santa Sabina College
64. Newington College
67. Cranbrook School
69. Canberra Grammar School
80. The Scots College
91. Trinity Grammar School

I think that makes 15 out of the top 25 schools (six of which are academically selective government schools, I proudly note), and 32 out of the top 100. If I happen to have left a school out please let me know. Schools with an asterisk have some Latin but don't offer it to the HSC (as far as I know or can find out). The only schools I can think of which offer Latin and aren't on this list are Redlands, St Josephs, Hills Grammar and Kinross-Wolaroi.

Disclaimer: I actually think ranking schools is pretty problematic, that the relationship between wealth, offering Latin and school success is a murky one and that it's not worth reading too much into this table. That is, schools which offer Latin tend to be those which attract students from wealthier families and so will probably get good academic results regardless of whether they offer Latin or not.

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