To the PMSA school community
This week our schools, our students, our staff and our parents have again endured a spate of sensationalist and irresponsible media stories with incorrect and misleading information by one ‘news’ publication.
This week the achievements of our 2017 graduating students’ OP scores were targeted.
We are very proud of our 2017 graduating students’ results and the young adults they have become. The facts below were not included and demonstrate how well our 2017 students achieved.
- BBC was ranked 9th in the State – an outstanding achievement. 2016 was BBC’s most successful year ever and results were only compared to last year.
- An overview of Somerville House results from 1994 to 2017 shows that their median value for OP 1-5 is 38.55%. The result of 38.16% in 2017 is on par with that value. There is no ‘alarming decline’.
- 100% of Clayfield College students received first round QTAC offers and in OP 1-5, Clayfield outperformed other private girls’ schools in the area.
- Four Sunshine Coast Grammar School students achieved an OP 1 and 86.30 percent of students achieved between OP 1-15.
In PMSA schools, a good education includes academic excellence as well as a foundation in Christian values, extensive co-curricular programs and opportunities for personal growth. Our schools are outstanding in all of these areas. Our teachers and resources enable all of our students to achieve their potential.
All our schools will continue to focus on this.
Following this deliberate denigration of all of our school students’ results, I wrote to the editor of The Courier-Mail on Friday 23 February to express my concerns.
Today, The Courier-Mail’s published yet another story with unsubstantiated and largely untrue information, this time about Rick Hiley. One correct fact is that Rick Hiley no longer works for the PMSA.
My full statement that I sent to The Courier-Mail regarding questions about Rick Hiley and other staff members during last week was “To respect people’s privacy, we will not be discussing publicly any issues relating to previous staff members.”
The key omission from this statement in the recent article was that the PMSA ‘respects’ and values people’s privacy. We will continue to do so.
This irresponsible journalism relies on a very small group of people who are fabricating stories and actively seeking to damage our schools, our students and our staff.
The PMSA is looking and working towards the future. We are currently undertaking a governance review with the aim of shaping an improved governing body.
We will continue to respectfully engage with the community and act positively.
We are buoyed by those who have privately messaged their support of the change we are working towards. We also sincerely thank those who have had the courage to publicly support our schools, our students, our staff and the PMSA and speak against those who are actively damaging our schools.
Kind regards
Greg Adsett
PMSA Chairman