When they ask about…doing well at school

It’s that time of year when teachers are hurriedly completing final assessments, reports are being written, exams sat and, for Year 12 students, the anxious wait for final results and course offers.

With these VCE and HSC results (and other state equivalents) come rankings of schools by study scores, perfect subject scores, highest possible scores. ATAR averages are tossed about, newspaper supplements feature lists of high-performing students, schools publish their stats and stories are shared of the duxes.

It is well known that Jewish students and schools achieve outstanding academic results disproportionate to our numbers. Why?

The first and foremost reason is that these results are hard-earned. Students, their teachers (believe me, I was a Year 12 teacher for 15 years!), excellent schools, and supportive families expend maximal effort to attain strong results.

This application of grit is in turn clearly related to wider sociological factors. Whereas in other schools it may be making the firsts in football or cricket, in a Jewish context it’s more often the intellect that is lauded. Furthermore, centuries of persecution, forced migration and dislocation have led to a recognition of education as the most valuable and enduring asset one can have; portable too - "The one thing they can never take away from you," my grandmother said.

Additionally, being surrounded by peers who are committed to their studies spurs on an aspirational approach, while coming from a family where one or both parents are university educated is a major determiner of a child’s academic outcomes, as they serve as role models and explicitly and/or implicitly communicate expectations.