Queensland State High Schools

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Queensland State High Schools cater for Years 8 to 12 (covering students from 12 to 17). Years 8, 9 and 10 are known as Junior and Years 11 and 12 are known as Senior. The term "Senior" is widely applied to those in Year 12. The technical term Sub-senior is sometimes encountered in relation to Year 11, but is not in widespread use.

1 State education system
2 Naming of schools
3 Variations
4 Completion
5 Controversies
6 List of Queensland SHSs

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State education system

Queensland, Australia has an extensive State education system, which is free and open to all residents, administered by and funded through a Queensland State Government Department now known as Education Queensland and also responsible for the Arts.

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Naming of schools

Secondary Schools in the Education Queensland system are normally named Town/District State High School, and often referred to by their acronym eg TSHS. Unlike some other schooling systems, State High Schools in Queensland are normally not (re)named to commemorate significant individuals or historic events. A few schools (e.g. Bundamba State Secondary College) have adopted other style of names. Some schools have been renamed from Town SHS to District SHS, this sometimes occures when smaller schools in a district are closed, and rural school bus services to the major centre provided instead.

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Variations

In some rural areas, small local State High Schools cater only to years 8 to 10, with students continuing to Year 12 busing to a larger centre for their final two years. There have also been a few schools, usually in extremely remote areas, that provide Years 1 to 10 (Hightop Primary Schools), with those wishing to complete Senior usually moving to a larger centre to complete their schooling.

A very small number of State High Schools offer or have offered either dormatories or out-boarding placements, however the majority of boarding schools in Queensland are religiously affiliated, mostly Anglican or Catholic, schools.

In recent years, some new schools have been built with a clear division between the Junior (years 8 to 10) and Senior (years 11 & 12) facilities, with the Junior sub-campus referred to as the Middle School.

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Completion

Junior Certificate: Certificate of completion at the end of Year Ten, now of limited value.
Senior Certificate: Certificate of completion at the end of Year Twelve, now considered a minimum qualification for most employment, historically it was only pursued by those seeking to advance to Tertiary Education.

In the past, Apprenticeships and other post (Junior) Secondary employment and training options, coupled with compulsory attendance only until 15 saw many students leave to enter the workforce before completing the Junior Certificate. Changes to employment conditions, compulsory education requirements and other factors have seen most students now completing Junior and attending through to Senior Certificate level.

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Controversies

There is a proposal to extend high school attendance requiremnets by one year, which would mean many students would reach legal adulthood, including the legal right to consume alcohol, during their final school year.

There has been a long running debate about placing students over 16 (Legal Age of Consent in Queensland) in the same campuses as students as young as 12.