STUDENTS at St Philip's Christian College Waratah will start their HSC trial exams on Thursday August 12, as the school juggles timetable changes driven by the Greater Sydney lockdown.
Principal Pam O'Dea said the school usually followed the Catholic Secondary Schools Association (CSSA) timetable and used some of its papers.
Mrs O'Dea said the CSSA originally moved its trials from Monday August 2 to Monday August 9 and then again, as of last Thursday, to Wednesday August 18.
Mrs O'Dea said St Philip's decided last week that its students would start their trials on Thursday August 12, before lining some exams up with the CSSA timetable as best as possible from August 18.
She said this would allow teachers who wanted their students to sit CSSA papers to do so, while others will use independent papers.
The order of exams has been changed, but none have been brought forward.
"For us here we felt moving them back another week and a half was probably going to be a challenge for our students mentally to cope with that sort of amount of change," she said.
"The students are ready, they have been working towards this, I think we could lose momentum if we keep pushing it back that far."
She said starting on August 12 would give teachers adequate time to provide feedback.
She said about half the school's exams would be sat with independent papers before the CSSA timetable.
Even when exams are scheduled in line with the CSSA timetable, teachers may still choose to use independent papers.
