More than 75,000 high school students finished 13 years of schooling this week, as the countdown begins for their first HSC exams on October 16. As they wave goodbye to this chapter of their lives, we asked students from four public high schools across Sydney to reflect on their experiences.

The new co-educational high school

Year 12 is typically the year of lasts – but, for Alper Cetin, it has been a year of firsts. This year, his school, Randwick Boys, merged with Randwick Girls, forming the new co-educational Randwick High School.

While he was initially “pretty surprised” by the decision to combine the single-sex schools, he has enjoyed his HSC year at a co-ed campus.

“It was chaotic at first, but we have settled in now. It’s a lot of new experiences, and exciting really – a great w

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