About Us

Education at Inaburra, however, is not about ensuring that our graduates, as a consequence of developing their capacity to learn, are empowered to accumulate more resources over the course of their lifetimes. Our desire for our students is that they might become people of generosity rather than accumulation, humility rather than arrogance and compassion rather than self-importance. We seek to encourage our students to be generous in the classroom, humble enough to admit when they don’t understand something and compassionately supporting their classmates who are struggling with a particular concept or idea. As a Christian school, our focus is on the development of learning character. Staff and students alike are encouraged to become people who are gracious, compassionate and self-controlled learners, ready, willing and able to be a blessing to those around them now and into the future.

You would be very welcome to come and experience for yourself the life and ethos of Inaburra School.

Dr James Pietsch became Principal of Inaburra School at the start of 2018. Prior to commencing at Inaburra, Dr Pietsch was the Dean of Professional Development and Learning at St Luke’s Grammar School in Dee Why where he had previously been Head of Mathematics. He has also held positions as the Dean of Residents at New College at the University of NSW, and as a lecturer and tutor in educational psychology at the University of Sydney. He holds a doctorate in educational psychology and brings a wealth of experience in education and leadership to his role as Principal.

Our Story

In the late 1970s, after surveying their local community, Sutherland Baptist Church saw a need to establish a Christian school in the local area. On 10 August 1980, the church accepted the recommendation of an education sub-committee that a high school should be established in the Menai district. So in pursuit of a dream, they sold their church property in Sutherland and crossed the Woronora River to establish Inaburra School and a new church now known as Menai Baptist Church.

Facing significant financial risk and overcoming many obstacles, a portable building was erected on the corner of Billa Road and Bangaroo Street for the use of the preschool and church in 1980.

Inaburra High School opened in 1982 in temporary accommodation at Gymea Baptist Church. The School comprised of 60 Year 7 students and 24 Year 8 students. Stage One of the Inaburra Complex was still being built and it wasn’t until Term 2 of that year that the School moved to the present site. On Monday, 24 May 1982 at 8:30am the staff and students of Inaburra High School began their first day in their newly built facility on the Billa Road site.

Over three decades later, the dream of the founders has now been realised with over 1000 students.

Our Future

2019-2021 Strategic Direction

In our three and a half decades, Inaburra School has built a strong reputation as a school of first choice in the Sutherland Shire and surrounding suburbs. Historically, the school’s strengths have been in Christian education, pastorally-caring relationships, creative and performing arts, and future-oriented innovation. In recent years these strengths have been broadened to include the quality of our facilities, the professionalism of our operations, the use of ICT for student learning and the holistic nature of our education. Inaburra is increasingly becoming an exemplar school in the independent sector in NSW.

Academic Results

Congratulations to the Inaburra School HSC Class of 2021.

January 2022

Today we celebrate the completion of thirteen years of formal schooling for the Inaburra Class of 2021 with the release of the HSC and ATAR marks. Whatever the individual result, there’s no denying the resilience of this cohort who have spent approximately one-quarter of the last two years of school time in remote learning. We recognise and acknowledge the achievements of them all.

Despite the range of challenges they faced there were some excellent results achieved by this cohort.

Subjects that achieved above-state averages:

The following subjects recorded averages that exceeded the State average by more than 10%: Food Technology and Industrial Technology – Multimedia.

The following subjects all recorded averages that exceeded the State average by more than 5%: Dance, Design & Technology, Drama, Engineering Studies, Mathematics Extension 2, Music 1, PDHPE, Textiles and Design.

The following subjects had 100% of students achieve a Band 6 or Band 5 result:
Dance, Design & Technology, English Extension 1, Mathematics Extension 2, Music 1, Music 2, Music Extension 1, Science Extension, Textiles & Design.

Other notable aspects of the HSC results for 2021 include:

• A total of 74 Distinguished Achiever results were listed on the 2021 HSC Honour Roll where students had achieved a mark of 90 or above (Band 6) in specific subjects.
• A total of 208 Band 5 results were recorded where students had achieved a mark of 80 or more (47% of all results)
• 13 Year 11 students completed Mathematics Extension 1 and 14 completed Mathematics Advanced

HSC All-Rounders and Achievers

Well done to three of our students who were recognised on the ‘All Round Achievers’ list with results in the highest possible band across 10 units of study – Darcy Faulkes, James Locke and Emily Ko.

Congratulations to Julian Torrillo for gaining 4^th place in the state in Food Technology.

Notable ATAR Results

Three of our Year 12 Graduates scored an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) above 99, placing them in the top one percent nationally. With their permission we can share: Darcy Faulkes 99.6, James Locke 99.5 (who were equal Dux of Year 12) and Daniel Wakeford (3^rd in Year 12) with an ATAR of 99.4.

An additional three students received an ATAR above 95 with 13 students in total receiving an ATAR above 90.

Congratulations to the following students for recognition of their HSC Major Works:

Felix Middleton was selected to be included in ARTEXPRESS 2022 for his Visual Arts Body of Work ‘The Traveller’ at the Bank Art Museum in Moree.

Emily Ko’s Visual Arts Body of Work ‘Blended’ was selected for inclusion in the Art Rules 2021 exhibition in the Broadhurst Gallery at Hazelhurst Arts Centre.

Emily Clark’s Visual Arts Body of Work ‘Pop’ was selected for inclusion in the ZOOMERS exhibition in the Main Gallery at Hazelhurst Arts Centre.

Textiles and Design student Georgia Long was selected for Texstyle 2022, the exhibition of a selection of exemplary HSC Textile and Design projects from the 2021 HSC.

Three students were nominated for SHAPE – the exhibition of a selection of exemplary major projects by Design and Technology, Industrial Technology and Textiles and Design students:

• Emily Ko and Chelsea Russell – Industrial Technology
• Georgia Long – Textiles and Design

The Drama Group Performance ‘The Child’ was nominated for OnSTAGE featuring students Mia Francesconi, Julia Green, Clare Hollis, Teyana Newman, Eythan Pankhurst and Daniel Wakeford.

Daniel Wakeford’s Individual Drama Performance ‘The Plum Role’ was nominated for OnSTAGE.

Drama student Teyana Newman’s individual project was nominated for OnSTAGE.

Dance student Tenaya Antonich’s Core Composition was nominated for Callback.

HSC Music compositions by Katherine Khoury and Daniel Wakeford were nominated for ENCORE.

Congratulations to the Class of 2021 and the incredible teachers and families who got them through under the most difficult of circumstances. We look forward to what the future brings.

NAPLAN results
The My School website profiles Inaburra School and includes details of its NAPLAN results. Click here for a direct link to the website.