Tracking Success: Student Stories from NSW

At Big Picture academies in NSW high schools, students structure their learning around personal interests, which they pursue both inside school and outside on internships with mentors in the community. Many are harnessing previously untapped potential and defying their own and others’ expectations of their capacities.

A range of students from very different backgrounds and learning styles with unusual and diverse interests are attracted to the Big Picture design for learning because it affords them opportunities that are not available to them in mainstream schools.

They are excelling in all kinds of domains, including the scientific, medical, creative, physical, and sociological, and successfully transitioning to further training, university and employment.