The last half of the school year is very much 'HSC focussed'. It is for the vast majority of school students the last step of a 13-year journey. From day one in Kindergarten to 'pens down' in the final HSC exam, schools and teachers are building knowledge and skills.

When primary school teachers talk to their Year 6 students, as they are now, about high school, it is their work over seven years that has prepared the students for what is an exciting and new experience.

When teachers of Year 7 students take their classes for the first time in January, and now six months on see how well the students have adapted to high school, it is their success that has readied the students for the next six years of their education.

For teachers of Year 10 students selecting HSC subjects and considering their options, their understanding of the individual student and the choices they can make plays a vital role in the decision making process.

It is the behaviours learnt in the early high school years that serve our students well when as young adults they start, as they are now, their last formal school term ahead of our internationally regarded NSW Higher School Certificate.

We celebrate the HSC because of how it connects the 13 years of schooling even for those students who choose a path other than the HSC. As for all students - whenever they leave school - the NSW and HSC syllabuses work to prepare them for life beyond school.