December 18, 2025 — 6:30pm
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At the start of year 7 at selective Penrith High School, new students’ strongest subjects are not typically in the humanities.
“When they come here, they’re good at maths and abstract reasoning,” said principal Jaclyn Cush.
Penrith Selective High School students Yingye Chen, Shabad Nagpal, Freya Stewart, Ryan Wen, Rupali Wadhwa.Sam Mooy
Like other selective schools, enrolment is based on the results of a high-stakes entry test, which many students spend months – or years – practicing for by drilling logic and numeracy practice questions.
HSC results released on Thursday show while Penrith High performed well in mathematics, it also made great strides in English, helping it leap more than a dozen places in the Herald’s league table to the 17th spot this year.
“I am really proud of the English results,” said Cush, who was the head English teacher before being appointed principal.
“We don’t want to be that traditional selective school where students just study maths. We promote all subjects, including ancient history, drama and English.”
Data also shows the proportion of students scoring above 90 per cent in advanced and extension 1 English has doubled since 2019.
Cush said she believed consistency of student effort was a big factor when it came to success.
“We continually reinforce with our students that the HSC is a marathon – it is not a sprint,” she said.
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Students had a Google Drive where they shared their very best work so others could see it.
“One of the expectations was, if they have perfect marks for a question, you share it with everybody in that group. They spoke about that being a key to their success,” Cush said.
The Herald’s HSC rankings data is based on the proportion of students enrolled in HSC subjects who receive a mark of 90 per cent or more. It does not account for schools that offer the International Baccalaureate, which has the potential to skew HSC performance.
An analysis of the top 150 schools shows private school Wollemi College, near Penrith in the city’s west, had the biggest jump, leaping 138 places to rank 139th.
The small school’s result was driven by strong marks in mathematics advanced, while almost a quarter of its students enrolled in biology achieved more than 90 per cent.
In Sydney’s south-west, Georges River Grammar jumped 114 ranks, to place 85th this year.
It doubled the number of band 6 results it achieved in 2024 and improved year on year since a ranking of almost 300th a few years ago.
“We were seeing our results slip – we wanted to see that turn around,” principal Ben Haeusler said.
That turnaround was aided by Haeusler speaking to staff about how students could achieve academic excellence without sacrificing the school’s traditional area of strength, which was mental wellbeing.
Georges River Grammar School students, from left, Natasha Nguyen, Phoebe Fuary, Sol Martinez, Camryn Harland, Lucas Ng and Kaylee Foss.Dean Sewell
“For us, it was about developing a new academic culture. It was a belief that our kids can do amazing things,” he said.
“Our teachers hold high academic expectations and, with the right support in place, students consistently rise to meet those expectations.
“We have also cultivated a highly collaborative culture where students learn together, celebrate one another’s success and are supported by strong peer and staff relationships.”
This year, its best subjects were mathematics extension 2, English extension 1, drama, visual arts, business studies, ancient history and economics.
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Asquith Girls High School, in Sydney’s north, leapt 60 places. The public comprehensive will cease to exist after the government ordered it be merged with its corresponding boys school despite parents opposing the move.
Private schools Newington, St Andrew’s Cathedral School, Mercy Catholic College and Trinity Grammar also rocketed up more than 50 places in the rankings.
Newington principal Michael Parker said the results were years in the making, with mentors and senior staff helping students refine study goals and encouraging them to take up extension courses.
“A really critical factor was the students’ sharing resources and working collaboratively, not competitively, for the whole year and particularly in the final months,” he said.
Outside of the top 150, other powerhouse academic performances from this year included St Peter’s Anglican College in Broulee on the NSW South Coast. The college jumped almost 300 places to rank 160th.
In Sydney, partially selective school Alexandria Park Community School went from 464th last year to 191st, while public comprehensive Glenwood High, in the city’s north-west, climbed 134 ranks to place 166th.
Read more of our HSC coverage
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