Changing my school's culture - pointless?

[JR_StudyEd]

So my school is ranked close to 400th in the state. That won't really affect my probability of getting a 90+, right? Nor should others in my cohort or myself be discouraged if they are aiming for it too, right?

Not meaning to diss my own school (or students of it) on an online forum, but I just want to say my cohort predominantly does not look highly upon the 'high achievers'. They may be considered 'uncool' and 'unpopular'. (I'm not sure if I fit into the bracket of high achiever, though.  ) I've been at my school since Year 7, so I'm kind of used to it. 'Social status' is more important than learning. I hear incessant conversations about what dudes get up to on the weekend (whilst in class, in full earshot of the teacher, mind you), it drives me borderline nuts. The constant disruptions caused by those who I can't call anything else other than 'Bludgers' really distract me from the important tasks at hand.

Look, I'm pretty sure that schools ranked in the top 100 still have bludgers and the chronically apathetic, but my main questions are:

- Should I even bother trying to change up the culture of my Year 12 cohort and school to be more academically oriented? (Seriously, it's unfair to the minority who come to class to genuinely learn something new)
- How do I go about this, if it's even worth it?

[Bri MT]

My school had similar culture but in my year & the year after we had students achieve 90+ ATARs so it's definitely not hopeless!

What I noticed is that one great VCE result can inspire others into believing & therefore trying harder;  this would be my approach to positively influencing the culture

[Remy33]

Literal feels dude. My school's ranked somewhere between 450~500 in Vic and we've only had one 90+ atar in my school's history (a 91, and this was years ago). Only about 30% of students go on to university and for many of them they're the first in their family to do so.

Tbh I think most of them have no intention of doing well. I'm not exaggerating when I say half the cohort show up to SACs hungover. I think when this is the general state of the cohort, the teachers are less motivated to help us do better. Like, every double period my english teacher just tell the students to do ""quiet study"" instead of covering content, and doesn't care less if kids stood up and left in the middle of a class.

I don't think it's possible to completely turn around the culture of a school by yourself. BUT maybe if you band together with some other students who are inspired to learn? Go to a teacher who's willing to listen? It'll be hard but worth a shot.

I think one of the main reasons students are not motivated to learn is because they genuinely believe they have no shot at doing well in VCE to begin with. My peers all have a "why should I even try" attitude, because historically our school does so badly. But maybe if you do well enough you could potentially show younger year levels that it's possible and that they shouldn't give up hope.

I'm in the same boat as you. I'm really hoping that if I do well enough this year, younger students will see that they should also work hard to do the best they can.

[JR_StudyEd]

I don't even know what my school's 'culture' is. It's a Catholic school, but I don't think that makes that much of a difference in terms of academic results. The teachers care quite a lot about our learning, so I can't put the blame on them.

I kind of alluded to this in the OP, but I often feel that I'm the only person in some of my classes who actually cares about their academics. It's tough. Especially in English and HHD. Thankfully, I haven't been bullied for it yet. Yet.

And yes, I know academic results aren't the be-all and end-all, but of a higher concern to me is my learning. Not many peers share that at my school, and the ones that do either generally keep to themselves, or hide from my radar very well.