HSC students deliver performance, project and portfolio excellence
In a record year of Year 12 Newington students electing to study HSC subjects Drama, English Extension 2, Visual Arts, Industrial Technology and Music, our congratulations to every student upon completion of their substantial major work each subject requires.
The students below have achieved excellence and been nominated and/or selected by NESA for inclusion in the prestigious NESA 2026 Showcases; OnStage, Young Writers, ARTEXPRESS, SHAPE and ENCORE.
These showcases celebrate exceptional works from HSC students across NSW. The students below highlight Newington’s explicit and ongoing emphasis on academic rigour, creativity, and critical thinking.
Drama
In an incredible achievement that recognises our students and Drama staff’s dedication to the art of theatre, Finn D, Archie F, Kevin F, Harry K and Mika K have been selected for OnStage for their highly entertaining Group Performance, Birds of a Feather. As one of only 56 performances selected from 13,172 nominated across NSW by NESA, this is an outstanding accolade. The group will perform their piece at the York Theatre, Seymour Centre in February.
Similarly, huge congratulations to Kye P whose Individual Project, a custom sized theatre program and poster for the post-electric play, Mr Burns by Anne Washburn was also selected by the NESA judges to be displayed at OnStage. Kye’s work draws on his belief, ‘theatre has always been a vessel that carries humanity forward’.
‘In many ways, Washburn’s play is a warning of what could be, for humanity,’ Kye writes in the Director’s Notes (his artist statement). ‘The current nuclear tensions that threaten our modern society bring us closer to the bleak reality that these characters face. And in uncertain times, we begin to ask important questions about ourselves. What do we do when we stare crisis in the face? We use our own mythology to guide us and bring us solace in chaotic times.’
Kye was also nominated for his Group Performance in Lost and Found.
2025 was another electric year of performances and projects by our HSC Drama students. In total, Newington received 25 nominations for Individual Project (set design, theatre reviews, posters and costumes), Individual Performance, and Group Performance.
Says Mr Paul Eastway, Head of Drama, ‘90 per cent of the 2025 HSC Drama cohort received at least one nomination for OnSTAGE, with remarkably more than 50 per cent receiving nominations for both their Individual Project and Group Performance. These are outstanding results with congratulations to Finn, Kevin, Harry, Archie and Mika for their selection to OnStage.’
Other Year 12 students to be celebrated include nominees Jordon G, Aidan J, Mika K, Luc M and Kye P for their Individual Project; Daniel C, Henry C, Finn D, Kevin F, Archie F, Jonathon F, Thomas R for their Individual Performance and Group Performers Daniel C, Brendan E, Michael K, Kye P, George S and Henry C, Jonathon F, Jordan G, Jeremy L.
English Extension 2
In Newington’s largest Year 12 HSC English Extension 2 cohort, students were required by NESA to submit an extensive literary major work. Joe C and Oscar M have been nominated for NESA’s Young Writers Showcase.
Joe has been nominated for his 6000-word critical non-fiction piece, ‘a ficto-critical work that reconfigures the traditional essay into a hybrid form’, says Mr David Conway, Head of English.
‘Joe’s work is a fictionalised conference transcript set in a speculative future. The transcript focuses on a critique of how cyberpunk literature echoes contemporary anxieties about AI, dependence on technology and the loss of control of our digital footprints.’
Oscar’s work is a critical essay based on NoViolet Bulawayo’s novel ‘We Need New Names’.
‘The essay explores how children are often missing from postcolonial ideas of futures beyond colonial influence. The essay examines how Bulawayo uses ‘Childism’ to disrupt traditional narratives and create a new, subversive version of the Bildungsroman novel that supports post-Africanism,’ says Mr Conway.
Newington students historically excel in English Extension 2, a subject growing in student engagement year on year. Guided by Newington’s program of individualised mentorship and teaching excellence, in 2024 the works of students Harry Board, Stylianos Vasili and Henry Rigg-Smith were nominated for Young Writers with Henry’s piece, A New Kind of Walk, later selected and published in the Young Writers 24 anthology.
Selections from the nominees for Young Writers 2025 will be announced in late November.
Visual Arts
In another outstanding achievement, HSC Visual Arts students Finn D and Henry L have been nominated for NESA’s prestigious exhibition, ARTEXPRESS.
For his Visual Arts major work, Finn (who was also selected by NESA for his Drama Group Performance, Birds of A Feather, and nominated for his Individual Performance) drew on his close circle of friends at Newington as his subject matter. His painted canvases Images of Friends: ‘Fact through Distortion’ – Francis Bacon, also draw on the work of the Irish figurative painter.
Henry L’s Visual Art major work, a six-minute film entitled, Tight-Fisted Hand at the Grindstone, explores ‘the insidious nature of greed’.
Henry created his work using Adobe Premiere Pro, with original sourced media shot on a Nikon D850 using both a Nikon 70-200mm and Tamron 24-70mm lens, alongside SFX sourced from various Creative Commons agents.
‘In my film, I don’t propose a single outcome – greed is not a childish fable that has a clean resolution in our contemporary world. We all have our own complex relationships with greed, where we balance our personal desires with our own moral codes.’
Selections to ARTEXPPRESS 2025 will be announced later this month.
Industrial Technology
Demonstrating the strength of the growing Technology Department at Newington, this year 14 students were nominated by NESA for its annual SHAPE showcase for their major timber works.
Makers included Benjamin A, Angus C, Charles F, Ewan G, Archie G, Robert H, Edward H, Oliver H, Henry L, Felix L, Jackson M, Alexander S, Carter W, Tom W.
Mr Joe Glover, Assistant Head of Technology, said this year’s cohort drew far and wide for inspiration for their impressive major works.
‘We have pieces inspired by modernist Italian designers such as Paolo Buffa, Indigenous inspired works, modern Scandi oak desks, surfboard racks and bathroom vanities. This is our biggest year yet with 27 students across three classes, so everyone is drawing on different inspirations.’
‘Each finished project is an outcome of each student’s thoughts and ideas; what went wrong, how they fixed it, how they overcame those challenges to complete what was without a doubt the biggest project most of them have ever completed in their lives. They should all be very proud.’
Selections for NESA’s SHAPE are announced in December.
Music
At Newington, Music is one of the key notes in an outstanding Creative Arts program and we are delighted to announce four of our HSC Music students have been applauded for their outstanding major works including performance, composition and musicology and nominated for NESA’s showcase, ENCORE.
Bravo to Henry C who was nominated for his percussion skills, Aska Y for his acumen on cello, Savvas S for excellence in organ and composition, and Seyoung J for his command of the saxophone.
Each of these students played several pieces in their HSC exams, guided by expert and dedicated private instrumental tutors, ensemble directors and music staff as well as the invaluable mentorship of acclaimed composer and Newington composer in residence, Dr Gerard Brophy.
The range of musical offerings across Newington is extensive. With private music tuition available for all instruments, 40 Co-curricular Music Ensembles including chamber groups, string, jazz, wind, vocal and contemporary ensembles for our Senior students, our two Prep schools are also alive with musical opportunity. Additionally, the College offers a number of Music Scholarships to students commencing at Newington in Years 7, 9 and 11.
Selections for ENCORE will be announced in the new few weeks.
