The schools with the best and worst student to teacher ratios in Orange have been revealed.
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The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority recently released new data detailing which of the country's classrooms were most crowded in 2023.
According to the data, of Orange schools with more than 150 students in 2023, it was Canobolas Rural Technology High School which had the best ratio with 9.67 students per teacher.
The school had 636 students and 65.8 full-time equivalent teachers.
Canobolas High principal Brett Blaker said roughly 40 per cent of teachers at the school were either in their first, second or third year of the profession.
"Like any school it is difficult to attract teachers, but if we are able to attract teachers, we've got that ongoing challenge to retain them into the workforce," he said.
"Part of that is putting in quality systems and practices within the school context to be able to assist teachers to learn their craft.
"We've really put in a lot of targeted support around early career teacher induction programs but also ongoing mentoring programs."
Mr Blaker noted how the school had seen a total of six teachers depart at the end of 2022 and 2023 combined.
He believed the lack of turnover was a key reason why Canobolas High had a 16 per cent increase in its year seven cohort for 2024.
"One of my main challenges when I came to the school was changing that negative perception that was out there in the community," Mr Blaker said.
"When you have stability you're certainly growing that confidence within our community that we are offering a quality education.
"Credit to every member of staff who comes to school. I'm super proud of where things are positioned."
How does the rest Orange fare?
Regardless of student numbers, Anson Street School - which provides specialist and intensive support - had the best ratio in Orange, with 28.7 teachers for 129 pupils.
Cargo Public School and Borenore Public School - which combined have just 29 pupils - each had less than six students per teacher in 2023 while independent educators One School Global had a ratio of 9.38 for its 120 students.
The national average for 2023 was 13.1 students per teacher. In secondary schools the ratio was lower at 11.8 compared to 14.3 for primary.
Of the 23 schools in Orange - encompassing government, catholic and independent - 14 had a worse ratio than the overall national average.
With 7.5 teachers for 139 students, Canobolas Public School had the worst ratio of all with 18.53.
The data was part of ACARA's National Report on Schooling in Australia 2023 which is being progressively rolled out. Data on school funding along with the full national report will be released in February 2025.
All the data for schools across Australia can be found on the MySchool website.