Killarney Heights High School
Killarney Heights High School is a coeducational, comprehensive high school located on Starkey Street in Killarney Heights, a northern suburb of Sydney, in the Northern Beaches, Australia.
Academically, Killarney Heights High School has performed better in 2018 and 2019 than previously, ranking in the top 100 schools both years, for the first time. However, due to rising issues after COVID, the school took a massive hit to results and student enrolment.
The school pushes a heavy focus on teacher-parent communication, inclusivity, diversity, and student/teacher wellbeing.
The school has a large Band Program, which features over 8 ensembles, ranging from Jazz, to Symphonic, to Strings. The band program makes tri-yearly trips overseas on an international tour. In 2023, this was to Tasmania.
The school also has a high level of sporting capability, with their sports teams coming first in multiple competitions.
History
The school was established in January 1967 to serve the new suburb of Killarney Heights which was built in the early 1960s. Some construction was still ongoing when the school opened and by the end of the year there were eight classrooms over four buildings. There were extensions to the school in 1968 and 1969. When the school opened there were 137 students but this rose rapidly with 998 students being enrolled by 1971 and 1281 by 1972.A gala event was held in 2017 to mark the 50th anniversary of the school.
Motto
The motto comes from an abbreviated quote from the writings of a late Old English abbot and Aelfric of Eynsham "a prolific writer of religious literature, including translations from the Bible, saints' lives and homilies. It reads as follows: Ic afandie manna heotan: & heora lendena. & aelcum sylle aefter his faerelde.& aefter his agenre afundennysse. This means: 'to each I will give according to his journey and according to his own invention '".The school motto "sylle aefter faerelde" was translated as "To each according to his/her conduct". The three words on their own can also be interpreted as "sylle" – foundation, "aefter" – after, "faerelde " — journey.
Academic results
| Subject | School 2023 | State Average 2023 | School Average 2021–2023 |
| Ancient History | 81.9 | 68.7 | 80.7 |
| Biology | 80.5 | 71.8 | 76.4 |
| Business Studies | 77.9 | 70.9 | 76.7 |
| Chemistry | 76.8 | 73.7 | 72.2 |
| Community and Family Studies | 87.3 | 72.7 | 80.0 |
| Economics | 72.8 | 75.7 | 75.5 |
| Engineering Studies | 75.9 | 73.9 | 75.7 |
| English Advanced | 89.6 | 81.2 | 88.8 |
| English EAL/D | 78.8 | 67.8 | 78.0 |
| English Standard | 78.7 | 68.5 | 78.5 |
| Food Technology | 79.5 | 70.8 | 78.9 |
| Geography | 77.5 | 72.5 | 77.5 |
| Industrial Technology | 80.4 | 69.1 | 80.1 |
| Investigating Science | 82.4 | 73.4 | 83.5 |
| Legal Studies | 83.7 | 72.9 | 84.9 |
| Mathematics Advanced | 79.0 | 77.0 | 77.5 |
| Mathematics Extension 1 | 73.0 | 78.7 | 73.6 |
| Mathematics Standard 2 | 77.3 | 68.7 | 74.1 |
| Modern History | 78.6 | 69.0 | 79.9 |
| Personal Development, Health and Physical Education Now known as: Health and Movement Science | 80.3 | 71.0 | 75.7 |
| Physics | 78.7 | 74.4 | 75.3 |
| Society and Culture | 87.1 | 76.3 | 86.2 |
| Visual Arts | 84.0 | 79.8 | 84.8 |
- ''Where there are fewer than 10 students in a course or subject, summary statistics or graphical representation of student performance is not available.''
Notable alumni and staff
- Ben Gathercole, triathlon coach
- Michael Hutchence, musician and lead singer of INXS
- Julie Sutton, former mayor of Warringah