For a long time Coodanup College has had a large focus on preparing students to enter the workplace directly, but in 2016 they have had their first group of students graduate through the ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) system.
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Schools around the country have been preparing students for the major written exams, the first lot of which begin today.
ATAR is the primary means of applying for entry to university, and provides students with a rank between 0.00 and 99.95 to indicate their position relative to all the students who started high school with them in year 7.
“Being a relatively small school we have not had the capacity to offer ATAR subjects in the past,” deputy principal Kelly Bennett said.
She said that before offering ATAR subjects, the college was focused on WACE (Western Australian Certificate of Education) and VET (Vocational Education and Training) qualifications.
Out of the twelve students who studied ATAR English this year, ten students passed, with the other two graduating with a WACE.
Ms Bennett said they will continue to offer the ATAR English course, along with ATAR Maths Applications and ATAR Human Biology, in 2017.
Students currently in year 11 at Coodanup College will be able to graduate with four ATAR subjects next year, if they choose to complete a course through SIDE (School of Isolated and Distance Education).
“We have a long term goal to expand the number of ATARs we offer but this is dependent on the number of enrolments we have,” Ms Bennett said.
“At this stage we can only offer the three and I anticipate this will remain so for another couple of years.”
