Catholic schools in the Sydney Archdiocese are celebrating 2008 HSC results that equalled their best ever. Among the 29 Catholic systemic secondary schools in the Archdiocese of Sydney, students performed above the state average in 61 per cent of all courses - the best overall result since 2006.

This result is a one percent improvement on 2007's overall average, and up from 55 per cent in 2005.

Of the 890 courses the 3,730 students sat this year, they recorded results above the state average in 541 of these subjects.

Tim McMullen, Head of secondary Curriculum at the Catholic Education Office, Sydney says the best indication of how schools performed is to look at how each school's students' results ranked against the state average.

The six top performing systemic schools in this category, (showing the percentage of courses above state average) were: St Patrick's College, Sutherland (91%); Freeman Catholic College , Bonnyrigg (90%), Aquinas College , Menai (88%), Marist College , Eastwood (80%), Trinity Catholic College , Auburn (80%) and Domremy College , Five Dock (80%).

All archdiocesan schools recorded courses above state average.

Three systemic Colleges made significant gains on their previous year's results of the number of courses above state average. Marist College at Eastwood had the highest gain with a 20 per cent increase in courses above state average compared to 2007. Domremy College at Five Dock had an 18 per cent gain, followed by LaSalle Catholic College at Bankstown , which improved by 15 per cent.

Marist College Eastwood principal Daniel Delmage says talent, combined with a great deal of hard work, has achieved these phenomenal results.

"We're just getting better and better. I'm pleased with the steady improvement," he said.

This year, a higher number of students in the Sydney Catholic school system outperformed their state counterparts by ranking in the top three bands in 19 key subject areas.

Their best performing course subjects were (in order): English (advanced), Visual Arts, Music, English (extension), Legal Studies, Studies of Religion I and II, Mathematics (extension), Modern History and Drama.

Mr McMullen says that Catholic students with results in these subjects in the top three bands were higher than the state average - ranging from at least 3 percentage points to as high as 15 percentage points for some courses.

"The results for catholic systemic pupils for English (standard) and Legal Studies outperformed the state average this year by 15 per cent," he said.

"The result for Catholic pupils for Studies of Religion 1 also outperformed the state average this year by 6 per cent with the second time marking of the examination since the new syllabus was introduced."

Nine Catholic students from Sydney also topped the state in a HSC course, receiving first-in-course awards from NSW Premier Nathan Rees at a special ceremony at Redfern Technology Park . Across the state, Catholic schools gained another four first places.

Overall, all Sydney Archdiocesan Catholic schools appeared on the 2008 HSC Honour Roll and 12 systemic schools were listed in the Daily Telegraph's top 200 schools in NSW.

Across Sydney 's Catholic school system, 38 students made the state's prestigious NSW top all-rounders' list (students who scored 90 or above in 10 or more units in the HSC) - twice the number of students from last year.

Twelve systemic schools also featured in the state's top 200 list, which ranks schools by their percentage of distinguished achievers.

Br Kelvin Canavan , who completes his appointment as Executive Di rector of Schools for the Archdiocese of Sydney, in April, says he is delighted with many achieving outstanding HSC results again this year.

"Our schools continue to raise the bar when it comes to academic achievement, and these results clearly reflect this," he said.

Eight Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Sydney recorded first-in-course places:

• St Mary's Cathedral College , Sydney : Adam Sacca (English Extension 2)
• Marist Sisters' College, Woolwich: Jessie Stephens (History Extension)
• St Patrick's College, Strathfield: Dominic Ofner (Studies of Religion II)
• Kincoppal Rose Bay : Amelia McKinnon (Drama)
• St Patrick's College, Strathfield: Edward Lyons (Music 1)
• Patrician Brothers' College, Fairfield : Andrew Dearing (Metal and Engineering Examination)
• Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College , Kensington: Diana dos Santos (Portuguese Continuers)
• Santa Sabina College, Strathfield: Maria Oh (Japanese Extension) and Christina Calgara (Italian Beginners)

Catholic all-rounder students in HSC 2008

All rounder students in Catholic systemic schools in the Archdiocese of Sydney who scored 90 marks or above in 10 or more units in the HSC.

• All Saints Catholic Senior College, Casula: Shalini Fischer.
• Freeman Catholic College , Bonnyrigg Heights : Laura Altoon, Maya Bergamin, Anna Bui, Eloise Fetterplace, Anna Gonzalez.
• Patrician College , Fairfield : Nicholas Brescia, Daniel Ciarliero.
• St John Bosco College , Engadine : Lauren Deadman, David Monti.
• St Mary's Cathedral College , Sydney : Nicholas Onie, Adam Sacca, Stefao Verrelli.
• St Patrick's College, Sutherland: Tran Thanh Anh Thu Nguyen.
• Brigidine College , Randwick : Ancella Jusuf, Katherine Sharah.
• De La Salle College, Ashfield: Daniel Rodrigues.
• Domremy College , Five Dock: Elizabeth Penning.
• Marcellin College, Randwick : Thomas Bracken, Mikhail Sarofirm, Dominic Svejkar, Brent Robert Williams.
• Marist College , North Shore : Daniel Godfrey, Peter Sarich.
• Marist College , Pagewood: Simeon Ghobrial.
• Marist Sisters' College, Woolwich: Sophie Baulderstone, Alysia Brooks , Megan Hager, Caitlin Player, Clair Stephens, Jessie Stephens.
• St Ursula's College, Kingsgrove: Laura Frances Dalby, Jessica Donlan, Jittika Thiyavutikan.
• Trinity Catholic College , Auburn : Charbel Doumit, Nabiha Elias, Steven Ly, Brian To.

For Further Info rmation:
Bernadette Zebec, CEO Sydney Communications Co-ordinator on (02) 9568 8223.