There will be no timetabled classes, no exams and no ATAR at the end of year 12 for students at a new independent high school in Sydney's west.

Instead, students at the new CathWest Innovation College, with campuses in Mount Druitt and Emu Plains, will complete two terms of set projects before developing solutions to their problems, building portfolios to apply to university or having the choice to pitch ideas directly to businesses.

India Wilcockson says she plans to do a project relating to writing, music or drama when she starts at CathWest next year. Credit:Wolter Peeters

"By term three, students will be constructing their own projects and working with teachers and mentors within the college and across industry," the college's principal Cathy Larkin said.

"Our students will certainly be assessed throughout their projects and on the basis of their portfolios but they won't have to sit through the three-hour tests that even I sat 40 years ago."