The first deputy headmaster, Mr Unicombe, visited the school in 1982 and recalled with considerable pride the results of the early Leaving Certificate classes.  He spoke of the pressure placed on students and teachers by skeptics in the community and confirmed the fact that the achievements of these early years did a great deal to establish the academic credentials of the school.

A resume of these early results left no doubt about the academic integrity of the new comprehensive high school.  In the 1961 Leaving Certificate class, two students finished in the first ten aggregate places in the state.  Of the 1962 Leaving Certificate class, five finished in the first two hundred positions in the Commonwealth Scholarships.  A student of this class won first place in the prestigious University of NSW Mathematics Competition.

Once established, this tradition of academic achievement continued through to the first Higher School Certificate examination in 1967, when thirty-seven Epping students shared fifty-five first level passes.  Of the one hundred and thirty pupils who sat for the Higher School Certificate in 1972, forty received Commonwealth Scholarships.