North Shore Coaching College Students Top ICAS Medal Tally in NSW
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NSW has scored more medals than any other Australian State or Territory in one of the largest global academic competitions for school students, with 27 high-achieving students from North Shore Coaching College topping the tally.
What is ICAS?
ICAS is a world-renowned competition that students from Australia and international schools sit annually across six subject areas – English, Mathematics, Science, Spelling Bee, Writing and Digital Technologies. Owned and operated by Australian education technology company Janison, the prestigious competition is administered in thousands of schools and testing centres across the globe. Despite the impact of COVID-19 on school education, hundreds of thousands of tests were completed in 2020, and the ICAS brand has strengthened its reputation as a provider of world-class educational assessments.
How did students perform in ICAS 2020?
State by state the medal tally was: NSW (168), QLD (123), SA (94), VIC (91), WA (85), TAS (55), NT (9) and ACT (8).
“I congratulate the state’s 168 students who received ICAS medals placing them in the top 0.3% of the 2020 world cohort. This is designed to be a very challenging competition and Australian students have excelled,” said Amy Barouch, Group Executive – ICAS Assessments at Janison.
“ICAS goes beyond the classroom curriculum and focuses on deep subject knowledge and higher order skills such as critical thinking and problem solving. For academic students, the competition represents challenge and an opportunity to stretch, and for others it is about the fun and resilience of seeing how far you can go.
“Australian students performed remarkably well, demonstrating their resilience amidst a pandemic and also how well placed our students are in terms of global competencies.”
At North Shore Coaching College (NSW) which operated as a testing centre for students from nearby schools, 27 students won medals – including one Year 5 student who won medals in both English and Mathematics.
In Australia and New Zealand, students will be honoured in an online medal celebration video available here. North Shore students were presented with their medals at our Principal Campus in an awards ceremony on Sunday 29 November 2020.
How has ICAS grown and improved throughout the years?
Janison’s CEO David Caspari said it has been 40 years since the University of NSW first introduced ICAS testing, but it was the transition to the digital environment over the last few years which supercharged the educational value of participation.
“Digital assessments are more interactive and dynamic than the paper-based exams, so increase student engagement and give teachers deeper and faster insights into individual students — allowing them to adjust teaching and learning methods for even stronger outcomes,” said Mr Caspari.
“It is a tribute to the quality and capacity of our learning platform that in 2020 we were able to extend the windows for testing based on pandemic lockdowns in particular areas, and yet there was not a single significant technology hiccup or disadvantage for even the remotest school due to internet connections. Our commitment to equity and accessibility for all has been well-served.
“Janison Education Group is a global force for good seeking to change the world through digital educational assessments such as Check-In, REACH, VALID and the OECD’s PISA for Schools test. Our team of educators, technologists and change agents are passionate about empowering teachers and students to achieve better outcomes.
“We are an Australian success story, now thriving on the global stage by delivering more than 10 million best-in-class assessments annually in 120 countries. From the spare room of a teacher’s house in regional NSW, Janison is now a trusted EdTech partner of the OECD, governments and private educators,” said Mr Caspari.
North Shore Coaching College is proud to be an authorised testing centre for these world-class assessments, as well as many other competitions for your child’s enrichment as part of our holistic educational offering providing Tuition That Works!
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