Shore Graduates: Where do they go and what do they do?
“…seek the peace and prosperity of the city… ‘for I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘Plans to prosper you…plans to give you hope and a future.'”
(Jeremiah 29:7, 11)
Dear Students, Parents and Carers
Shore is a school which cares deeply and longitudinally about students. Our interest in them continues after they graduate. Once a Shore boy, always a Shore boy. We particularly want to see them flourish as an impact of their time at Shore. Part of our remit is to help parents launch them into productive and fulfilling pathways. In that respect, a Shore graduation is a passport to the future.
Focusing specifically, for the moment, on University destinations for last year’s cohort is one aspect and indicator within this domain. Last year, of our 217 Year 12 graduates, 227 university early entry scheme offers were received (some boys received more than one offer). 227 is a huge number. Of these, 38% came from UTS, 29% of offers came from the ANU and 22% from Macquarie University, these three being the main players in the early entry stakes.
While Shore boys have done very well under this mechanism, the notion of early entry offers based on Trial HSC results, Year 12 half yearly results for schools that conduct such exams, and even Year 11 results, has been controversial. It has been an attempt by universities, in a competitive market, to gazump other universities by locking in candidates. Many Principals have complained that, on receiving an early offer, many Year 12 students give up serious academic engagement. We have rarely found that at Shore and certainly last year’s results did not reflect such complacency amongst our students. Nonetheless, universities have agreed that this year no offers will be made before September.
In the more conventional university application pathways, the in-season offers made in the early, main and late round phases from the Universities Admission Centre (UAC) through December to early February, 202 applications by our boys resulted in 197 offers. Proportionally, these were dominated by UTS (33%), Sydney University (26%), UNSW (17%) and Macquarie University (13%), with Newcastle University a distant fifth on 5%. The distribution of courses chosen by our graduates is particularly interesting: 38% Management and Commerce, 16% Engineering and related technologies; 12% Society and Culture, 8% Health and 7% for each of Natural and Physical Sciences and Architecture and Building, with 5% pursuing Creative Arts and 4% Information Technology. These are very atypical destinations from those seen in all my other Headships, particularly the large number going into Management and Commerce and the smaller number pursuing Creative Arts.
The general assumption at Shore is that the preponderance of students studying Management and Commerce in recent years is a reflection of their parents’ careers and aspirations. While there can certainly be no objection to these fields, my long term hope is that a higher proportion of our graduates may feel a calling to medicine, law and yes, even that wonderful way of making a difference in the world, teaching (only 1% of our graduates have applied for Education, i.e. roughly two boys out of 200!).
Not all of our students wish to attend university. Some of our boarders have long aspired to return to the land, to farms which have been in their families for generations; some have elected to study Vocational Education, such as Trades. These are perfectly reasonable, supportable choices which may well be financially rewarding (as parents who have ever sought to engage a plumber or electrician will know!).
In summary, we are delighted with the information to hand on the destinations of our graduates from 2022 and gratified by the signs that Shore has delivered for them a useful passport for the future.
Doing so is part of our Christian remit “…seek the peace and prosperity of the city….. ‘for I know the plans I have for you’, declares the Lord. ‘Plans to prosper you…plans to give you hope and a future.’” (Jeremiah 29:7, 11)
We do realise that, in these days of flexibility, their passports may be stamped in many places, so to speak, as young people embrace different careers over time as part of their life journey.
Staffing
We say farewell in the coming week to Ms Joelle Kinsella, who acted last year very capably as our Head of Counselling. Ms Kinsella is making a lifestyle choice to enter private practice as a Psychologist in a role which gives her flexibility to do school drop-offs and pick-ups of her young children. We would like to think, in the fullness of time, that we may see her back at Shore and are very grateful of her fine work with students. Our very experienced Senior Counsellor, Mrs Cay Camden, will act as Head of Counselling through 2023.
In Memoriam
Most readers will have read, through various Shore and Old Boys’ communications, of the tragic death of Tom Livingstone, Old Boy 2021, in an accident over the last weekend. The School is providing what support it can for Tom’s family, friends and staff who taught and coached him, and remember Tom as a very fine young man. A Memorial Service is being conducted in the Shore Chapel on Saturday afternoon, 25 February 2023, at 2.00pm. This information will be communicated through the usual OBU networks.
Dr J Collier
Headmaster