ST ALBANS Secondary College has been named one of the top eight schools in the state following a Department of Education study conducted last year.

The school was recognised with the honour last week for its strong leadership, high level of expectation and teacher efficiency and focus on an orderly learning environment.

School principal Kerry Dowsley could not be happier with the achievement.

“It’s significant in that it recognises the work of staff and students at the school,” Ms Dowsley said.

“The study looked at schools that perform above expected levels based on socio-economic levels.

“We have high expectations of our students and we encourage them to have high expectations of themselves and I think we do that for example by our business partnership enabling students to have experiences and opportunities beyond the classroom.”

Factors such as student literacy and numeracy data, retention of students, absence records and ENTER scores were looked at during the study.

The school also took part in the filming of a documentary based on the department’s findings from the study.

Ms Dowsley and several teachers and students were interviewed and filmed in action as part of it.