About four in five Australian Year 10 students make it through to Year 12—but that means nearly one in five don't. The latest figures show 81.5% of students progress from Year 10 to Year 12, a modest 1.6 percentage point increase from the previous year. While progress has been largely stable since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the persistence of this gap raises an urgent question: what can schools do right now to keep that missing fifth of students engaged?
The stakes of finishing school are clear. Young Australians who complete Year 12 enjoy better employment prospects, higher lifetime earnings, and stronger health and wellbeing. Completion also keeps the widest range of post-school options open—from vocational training and apprenticeships to university and direct entry into the workforce. Yet students leave before Year 12 for reasons both complex and varied. Some are managing health challenges, navigating difficult life circumstances, or pursuing opportunities like apprenticeships that genuinely fit their goals. But for others, the decision to leave is shaped by their experience at school itself. They become disengaged, fall behind, or lose their connection to the institution entirely. And here's the critical difference: schools can influence these experiences.
Decades of research points to three powerful levers schools can pull from Year 7 onwards to boost retention. The first is how teachers teach. Students need to feel they can succeed at school and see themselves making progress to stay engaged. When learning is consistently out of reach, they disengage. When they can see themselves getting better at things, school feels worth the effort. Research shows that effective teaching in Year 7 is connected all the way through to whether a student completes school six years later. The evidence supports explicit instruction—where teachers clearly model new concepts and skills, guide students through examples, and gradually shift responsibility as students gain mastery. Two strategies particularly stand out: breaking new concepts into manageable steps matched to what students already know, and giving students well-organized practice opportunities paired with specific guidance on how to improve.
The second lever is classroom management—how teachers structure the environment and interactions within it so learning can actually happen. Orderly, predictable, and positive classrooms free students to focus on learning rather than navigating disruption. Research shows students whose teachers provided strong classroom management were up to six times more likely to have high motivation, engagement, and resilience at school than those whose teachers did not. Two strategies prove particularly effective: establishing and consistently maintaining clear rules and routines so students know what to expect, and recognizing and building on what students do well rather than only focusing on what goes wrong.
The third lever is perhaps the most fundamental: building warm, respectful relationships between teachers and students. These relationships matter not only for retention in their own right but also because they underpin the other two areas. Strong teaching and good classroom management both depend on positive teacher-student relationships. When students feel known and supported by their teachers, they're more willing to engage and stay connected. The more positive relationships a student has with teachers relative to negative ones, the greater their academic engagement—and academic engagement is a key driver of retention. Every teacher can make a difference. Those relationships, which add up across a student's journey through school, could be exactly what helps a young person stay on and complete Year 12.