New school: Elizabeth Blackburn School of Sciences

[awesomejames]

I don't understand why there is something called "University High School". Is it meant to be a high school or a university?

Ok, so my history of my school isn't perfect but I think it goes something like this:
-the school was first a school where university students who would want to become teachers in the future, be allowed to teach students. So kind of like being those student teachers which observe the real teachers, except at uni high they actually teach. I'm not sure whether the teachers were from Uom or not.
-so they decided since it was a school that university students could teach in, which was for high school students, they called it "The University High School"

It is a high school btw

Hope that clears it up a bit

[Special At Specialist]

Ok, so my history of my school isn't perfect but I think it goes something like this:
-the school was first a school where university students who would want to become teachers in the future, be allowed to teach students. So kind of like being those student teachers which observe the real teachers, except at uni high they actually teach. I'm not sure whether the teachers were from Uom or not.
-so they decided since it was a school that university students could teach in, which was for high school students, they called it "The University High School"

It is a high school btw

Hope that clears it up a bit

Ahh makes sense... I was always wondering about that, since I heard the name about a year ago.

[Guest]

I have a friend who is wanting to try out for this school. Does anyone know what subjects will be tested on the entry test for Elizabeth Blackburn School of Sciences? I'm trying to help him out and so far we've just gone over what was on the JMSS test. With less that a month to go, I don't want to be teaching things which ultimately are not required. I had a look at the website and it does not seem to say there.

If any one has made any enquiries regarding this or knows somehow can you please let me know?
Thanks

[slothpomba]

With enrollments in STEM degrees going down... Of course, humanities are important, but with the enrolments in Law, Arts and Comm (to a degree) degrees in universities being generally quite strong

Not trying to start a debate but you seem to assume thats a bad thing.

It could just be a supply and demand thing. I remember reading somewhere that ~50% of science students end up not working in science. It just stands to reason, the cohort for Monash Bsc (not even their other specialised science degrees) is ~1000. UoM is likely similar if not higher. There are plenty of other universities in Victoria as well. We simply graduate way more science students than there are jobs for them. There's no way that Victoria has a burning need for thousands of new scientists every year.

I dont think it should be (largely anyway) based on the number of enrollments when there would be many other things to consider when making a decision like that. The purpose of building a specialised school isn't really to boost enrollments. A specialised humanities school or whatever else might be a good idea for many other reasons outside boosting enrollments.

[thushan]

Had a look at this school website. Looks pretty damned solid. Particularly like the focus on research. If the program is carried out correctly, this could take off really nicely.

[darlok]

Not trying to start a debate but you seem to assume thats a bad thing.

It could just be a supply and demand thing. I remember reading somewhere that ~50% of science students end up not working in science. It just stands to reason, the cohort for Monash Bsc (not even their other specialised science degrees) is ~1000. UoM is likely similar if not higher. There are plenty of other universities in Victoria as well. We simply graduate way more science students than there are jobs for them. There's no way that Victoria has a burning need for thousands of new scientists every year.

I dont think it should be (largely anyway) based on the number of enrollments when there would be many other things to consider when making a decision like that. The purpose of building a specialised school isn't really to boost enrollments. A specialised humanities school or whatever else might be a good idea for many other reasons outside boosting enrollments.

It shouldn't be about getting X people into science, it should be about getting the best people into science. If universities start turning out better graduates, demand will pick up.

[BigAl]

I'm not in favour of these schools. Let me list my reasons.
One of the reasons I migrated to Australia was the inequality of education in Turkey. High schools are classified as several groups in Turkey like Science, Teaching, Normal and Technical... The difference in terms of education and atmosphere is huge, especially between normal and science high school...all students sit for an exam in y8 that will mostly determine their lives because there is not much probability of getting into uni from normal school...Australia might be heading that way if they don't control the number of these schools...

[Lasercookie]

I'm not in favour of these schools. Let me list my reasons.
One of the reasons I migrated to Australia was the inequality of education in Turkey. High schools are classified as several groups in Turkey like Science, Teaching, Normal and Technical... The difference in terms of education and atmosphere is huge, especially between normal and science high school...all students sit for an exam in y8 that will mostly determine their lives because there is not much probability of getting into uni from normal school...Australia might be heading that way if they don't control the number of these schools...

I'm not sure. The education inequality in Australia is a bit different to what you're describing.

These selective schools are more or less just offering the VCE (or other state) curriculum, it's the same stuff that's taught at every other school (even that extended investigation subject that's listed on the Elizabeth Blackburn Science School website is a VCE subject). There's a few other extracurricular opportunities and stuff that seem to be the main advantages of these kind of schools.

Keep in mind that people attending the 'normal' public schools in Australia have fairly good chance of getting into university, I don't see how small numbers of these specialist/selective schools would cause a drop in the quality of those schools. There's a fairly big emphasis on access and equity that we have in Australia too; if the university admissions processes does change in the future, I don't think it would make university less accessible.

[thushan]

I'm not in favour of these schools. Let me list my reasons.
One of the reasons I migrated to Australia was the inequality of education in Turkey. High schools are classified as several groups in Turkey like Science, Teaching, Normal and Technical... The difference in terms of education and atmosphere is huge, especially between normal and science high school...all students sit for an exam in y8 that will mostly determine their lives because there is not much probability of getting into uni from normal school...Australia might be heading that way if they don't control the number of these schools...

I'd support the Turkey model if it allowed for movement between schools.

[spectroscopy]

I'm not in favour of these schools. Let me list my reasons.
One of the reasons I migrated to Australia was the inequality of education in Turkey. High schools are classified as several groups in Turkey like Science, Teaching, Normal and Technical... The difference in terms of education and atmosphere is huge, especially between normal and science high school...all students sit for an exam in y8 that will mostly determine their lives because there is not much probability of getting into uni from normal school...Australia might be heading that way if they don't control the number of these schools...

select entry high schools here i think are needed in alot of ways

tonnes of students could be really really smart, but can't afford any good schools, and their local high school could be deer park high or sunshine college or something, the weak cohort + bad environment would be detrimental to their education
select entry schools provide that environment that really promotes learning, and gets rid of nearly ALL of the distractions at other schools
at my school there have been 0 fights, barely any drama ever, everyone studies, classes are NEVER disruptive (shocking i know, but seriously)
i know myself, if i hadnt gotten into a select entry high school - i would not have gotten over being called a nerd and being bullied and stuff and I wouldnt be doing as well as i am

and it is great now that there are more specialized versions of these schools JMSS is going to create some great scientists, and im sure elizabeth blackburn will do the same

[IndefatigableLover]

Had a look at this school website. Looks pretty damned solid. Particularly like the focus on research. If the program is carried out correctly, this could take off really nicely.

Yeah I like how they've emphasised on the researching but their facilities seem to be on par with JMSS (school-wise) although we get given laptops whilst they have to bring their own devices... though now that I realise it but we're going to have some fierce rivalry against EBSS as the years go by LOL :O

[BigAl]

select entry high schools here i think are needed in alot of ways

tonnes of students could be really really smart, but can't afford any good schools, and their local high school could be deer park high or sunshine college or something, the weak cohort + bad environment would be detrimental to their education
select entry schools provide that environment that really promotes learning, and gets rid of nearly ALL of the distractions at other schools
at my school there have been 0 fights, barely any drama ever, everyone studies, classes are NEVER disruptive (shocking i know, but seriously)
i know myself, if i hadnt gotten into a select entry high school - i would not have gotten over being called a nerd and being bullied and stuff and I wouldnt be doing as well as i am

and it is great now that there are more specialized versions of these schools JMSS is going to create some great scientists, and im sure elizabeth blackburn will do the same

I have no problems if the number of these schools is kept limited..But if they don't control it, all these y8s or y9s will be competing for these schools..Due to limited number of available students these schools will be marginal I guess...So there will be inequality in education...This is my thought based on my experience...Otherwise I'm not against science schools 

[Scooby]

I have no problems if the number of these schools is kept limited..But if they don't control it, all these y8s or y9s will be competing for these schools..Due to limited number of available students these schools will be marginal I guess...So there will be inequality in education...This is my thought based on my experience...Otherwise I'm not against science schools 

It's not like universities are going to discriminate based on the high school an applicant's come from

[Russ]

These selective schools are more or less just offering the VCE (or other state) curriculum, it's the same stuff that's taught at every other school

So are private schools and they offer a much better standard of education than the average public school. The high school system is essentially tiered with private > selective > non selective and I think it'd be really great if the government invested in education properly, rather than opening a couple of new selective schools to save money.

[IndefatigableLover]

Sorry for necromancing but they just had their exam yesterday for the first intake of Year 11's next year. Apparently (according to my friends), the school 'will be better than JMSS' (according to their principal) *cough* and there were approximately 140 kids there at the exam.

But an intriguing thing I found out from the exam was that unlike the JMSS exam where there are two math components followed by science reasoning and two writing tasks.... this time there was Verbal Reasoning, Science Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Maths and a writing piece. What surprises me were the English based ones LOL :O