The Saturday School of Community Languages (SSCL) and NSW School of Languages (NSL) have excelled in the 2019 HSC language results, with SSCL achieving 17 first places in language courses and NSL students first in 11 courses.

The students attended the NSW Education Standards Authority's special ceremony on Monday to celebrate their achievement.

The Saturday School of Community Languages is operated by the Department of Education and is the largest provider of face-to-face language education in NSW, operating at 15 high school sites – 13 in metropolitan Sydney and one each in Wollongong and Newcastle. The school offers 26 language courses on Saturdays to 3,200 students from government and non-government schools from Years 7 to12.

The NSW School of Languages is the state’s leading languages educator via distance education to students in Years 9 to 12. Courses are available in Italian, Greek, German, Russian, French, Latin, Portuguese, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Indonesian and English as an additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D).

Students in all education sectors are able to study with NSL when the student’s school is unable to offer the language they wish to study. In addition to regular coursework, face-to-face lesson days are organised once a term at the Petersham campus in Sydney, where students have the opportunity to meet with other students and teachers while taking part in educational activities.

NSW School of Languages principal Hilary Hughes said that learning a language has the potential to open doors in many careers and priority is often given to language speakers.

“Companies are recognising more and more the enhanced thinking and problem-solving skill of language learners,” she said.

Ms Hughes said so many students had worked so hard and shown that when motivated they could top the state studying a language through distance education.

“The students have been guided through the online work by our experienced teachers, as well as having weekly one-on-one phone lessons,” she said.

“They have shown that they are great linguists but also independent learners and this is one of the skills that will stand them in good stead for their future studies.”

Saturday School of Community Languages - First Place in Course

• Croatian Continuers: William Chmelar
• Filipino Continuers: Name not published
• Hindi Continuers: Yashvi Luthra
• Hungarian Continuers: Eszter Duzs
• Japanese and Literature: Hinata Suzuki
• Japanese in Context: Ashley Jacobsson
• Khmer Continuers: Rithysak Yous
• Korean and Literature: Yoolree Kim
• Korean in Context: Ryan Minseong Kwon
• Macedonian Continuers: Viktoria Gosarevska
• Modern Greek Continuers: Savina-Ipapanti Ellina
• Modern Greek Extension: Savina-Ipapanti Ellina
• Persian Continuers: Paniz Sangi
• Polish Continuers: Natalia Grodek
• Portuguese Continuers: Lara Beatriz Santos Soares Braga
• Punjabi Continuers: Jasmeet Kaur
• Spanish Extension: Shirley Nagamine

NSW School of Languages – First Place in Course

• Chinese Extension: Anna-Sophia Zahar
• Indonesian and Literature: Fatimah Talib Hashim
• Indonesian and Literature: Vita Purwanto
• Indonesian Beginners: Kiera Taylor
• Indonesian in Context: Angela Santoso
• Japanese Extension: Jia Rui Shen
• Korean Beginners: Jacqueline Fenn
• Korean Continuers: Emily Cheng
• Modern Greek Beginners: Stella Kretzas
• Russian Continuers: Tamila Eshchenko
• Spanish Continuers: Simon Peyrachon