The unsung state school where seven students got perfect scores last year

Last year, seven students at one Brisbane public school achieved perfect scores, but none were included in the state’s official count of 37 top ATARs.

Nestled within Toowong’s bucolic backstreets, the Queensland Academy for Science, Mathematics and Technology (QASMT) produced its strongest year 12 result to date in 2025, said principal Kath Kayrooz.

“What makes me the most proud of this cohort is the young people behind the results,” she said.

The selective-entry high school teaches the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum, which places final year 12 scores on a 45-point scale. However, Kayrooz said the seven students’ perfect scores were an ATAR-equivalent of 99.95.

She attributed the students’ success in part to the school’s expansion in 2019, which opened the IB middle years programme to students in years 7 to 9, ahead of the senior diploma program.

Before 2019, the school only taught years 10 to 12, and the 2025 cohort was only the second to graduate since the expansion.

“Having completed six years of the IB program, they have learnt in an environment that values both high expectations and wellbeing,” Kayrooz said.

“[Their] results reflect students who know themselves, feel supported, and are thoughtful, empathetic young people who care about the world and those in it.”

The 2025 school captain, Jess Swift, started at QASMT in year 7 in 2020, and completed all her schooling within the IB system.

“One of the main reasons I decided to come to QASMT was the people and the environment … we all do reflect back after we do the IB, and we all say, ‘you know, it did make me a well-rounded person’,” Swift said.

She said the STEM-specialist school suited her perfectly, as she knew since a young age she wanted to pursue a career in science, maths, or medicine.

QASMT, which accepts 224 students into year 7 each year, only has capacity for several dozen more in its year 10 intake.

Last year’s fees for the IB and middle years programs were $2600 and about $1030, respectively, although the state government revises the costs annually.

QASMT has a national Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage percentile of 99 out of 100, with about 80 per cent of the student body sitting in the top quarter.

Just over half its students are male, and Kayrooz said most students’ families lived locally, with 64 per cent coming from a language background other than English.

Of the state’s three selective-entry academies teaching the IB programme (the Queensland Academy of Creative Industries in Kelvin Grove, and the Queensland Academy for Health Sciences on the Gold Coast are the other two), QASMT is the only one that teaches below grade 10.

Kayrooz said the school frequently received far more applications than it could accept under its current student caps, which are managed by the Education Department.

She said that last year, the school launched a pathways program for high-achieving year 7 applicants who would have been accepted if enrolments were higher.

“It made me very sad, to be honest, and I didn’t want these students and their parents to feel that they didn’t deserve a position – they are actually really highly capable,” Kayrooz said.

Last year, 32 students were registered for the pathways program, which guarantees year 10 enrolment while giving the students access to some of QASMT’s resources – including teachers – through years 7 to 9.

Kayrooz said the school looked for students who were passionate about science, technology, engineering and maths.

She said QASMT also expected future students to show interest in the liberal arts and have values aligning with the IB program, including empathy, kindness, persistence and resilience.

The Toowong campus boasts a number of specialist facilities, including a telescope, VR workspaces, and hubs for STEM subjects and foreign languages.

However, incoming 2026 school captains Jemimah Agada and Charlie Tarre-Sancier said the IB taught students to balance a range of subjects and interests outside STEM.

“Even though they say it’s a science school, I’ve done so much sport here … I’ve gone to so many different state levels” Agada said.

Tarre-Sancier said the IB program required students to learn a foreign language and also enrol in subjects across English and the humanities.

“We have more flexibility in that we can pursue what we’re passionate about, [but] we need to have multiple passions,” he said.

The foreign languages on offer at the school include Chinese, German, French, Latin, Japanese, and Spanish.

Year 12 graduate Aaron Wei said he discovered a passion for Latin through the school’s mandatory foreign language class, which he described as “one of the loves of my life”.

“It’s just subjects like that which I’m really passionate about, but I know that if I was aiming for that top ATAR score, I wouldn’t be able to do them,” he said.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.