The release of this year's Higher School Certificate results has again highlighted the strength of Bathurst's education sector.
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Thanks to some number crunching from the metropolitan media, MacKillop College can lay claim to being the best-performed Bathurst school at this year's HSC with 41 Band 6 results at a rate of 8.17 per cent of exams sat by students, but every school should be proud of its efforts.
Overall, Bathurst schools held three of the top five positions among schools right across the Central West, but the final numbers tell only part of the story.
While we rightly celebrate the efforts of the region's top students, for many HSC students who did not rank near the top of the pack on Tuesday just getting through their 13 years of schooling was a notable achievement.
And nothing better illustrates the human side of the HSC than the growing success of Skillset Senior College.
Skillset had 20 students in its Year 12 cohort this year and most had only arrived there after finding it difficult to complete their schooling elsewhere.
Skillset does not look like others schools and its classes do not run like other schools, but it has the same motivation as every great school: To give its students every possible chance to succeed.
And they're doing such a good job that Skillset is set to undertake a landmark two-year study on student wellbeing.
The college recently received a $130,000 School Based Research Project grant from the Association of Independent Schools NSW [AISNSW] to identify effective management strategies for student mental health.
"We also pay particular attention to the wellbeing of teachers and support staff who become trusted advisers and role models for students," head of college Abbey Barrett said. "The key goal of our staff is to show students the opportunities that life-changing education can deliver."
And what that all means is that there is somewhere for every student at Bathurst's high schools.
Our city is rightly proud of its reputation as an education hub for regional NSW and recent changes in the industry locally have only served to boost that standing.
The HSC and ATAR should not be the be-all-and-end-all in a young person's life, but Tuesday was nonetheless a significant day for all graduating students.
Well done and congratulations to you all.