Clifton tops OP results
THE principal of a rural high school in the Toowoomba region has revealed how a change in teaching approach led to some of the best OP results in Queensland.
Clifton State High School principal Lou Oberholzer is thrilled to see more than one third of last year’s Year 12 cohort (36.36 per cent) achieved an OP of between one and five.
The result put Clifton ahead of esteemed schools like Fairholme College and Toowoomba Anglican School in 2019, and third in the state for 10-year growth.
Mr Oberholzer said the achievement, which was also a 31 percentage point increase from 2009 (five per cent), could be traced back to a pedagogical change when he assumed the head role in late 2016.
“It’s about our pedagogical methodology which has changed, which is the way we teach,” he said.
“Our focus is that every student succeeds, and what we can do in a classroom is to make sure every student is working to their best.
“It’s about making sure the students understand how to study, and how you prepare and manage their study skills.”
But Mr Oberholzer said the result was not possible with the support from both the staff and the parents of children, who he said played an active role in nurturing a culture of studying.
“One thing you can’t leave out is the parent involvement – being a small community, we made sure we involved the parents with everything they do,” he said.
“When they leave school at 3pm, it is important that the parents continue that study environment.
“We hold extra study classes after school, but the challenging part is we don’t have a public transport system after 3pm.”
Mr Oberholzer said the achievement was proof rurally-based schools could match their city counterparts, and highlighted their importance to small communities.
“What it speaks to is (that) even with a lot of infrastructure available (in the cities), there’s nothing different (about the relationship) between a student and a teacher,” he said.
“If you concentrate on (keeping the student with) the family, then you have success.
“You need to look after the whole community, because it’s an agricultural school and we offer several certificates.
“The same student that’s getting that good OP result will also have those agricultural credentials, and that will push them back onto the land.”
Last year’s cohort was also the final group of students to study for an OP, with all Queensland schools moving over to the ATAR system that involved external assessment.