Orbost Secondary College (OSC) and Mallacoota P-12 College are celebrating the success of students after the arrival of Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) scores.
At Mallacoota, Dux was awarded to Tom Nation, who achieved an impressive 98.15, putting him in the top 1.85 per cent of students across the state, as well as the school’s highest ever ATAR.
The school’s Facebook page stated the state average ATAR was 68.14, while Mallacoota’s average was 73.3, with five study scores above 40 and a perfect score of 50 (top in state) in sport and recreation.
At OSC, Laika Joiner, of Marlo, scored 94.55, surprising even herself, and was the highest scoring female and also Dux of the college.
Curtley Farley was the highest scoring male student.
Laika, 17, is aiming to study psychology at Melbourne University and needed an ATAR of 88 to be accepted into the course.
She studied hard at home despite her two younger brothers.
“Lockdown gave me more time to focus on school because there were no social or sporting events,” she said.
“I think it went one of two ways for people, some found it really hard and didn’t do as well as they could have.”
For this year’s year 12 students Laika’s advice is “if you’re willing to work for the mark you can get it, no matter what people tell you”.
OSC principal, Peter Seal, said they had 16 students sit for an ATAR score, with two students scoring above 90 and four in the 80s.
“We are proud of all our students’ achievements,” Mr Seal said.
“Based on their scores, we are confident all of the students looking to go to university will receive offers.
“More than this though, we are sure they have the resilience and positive mindsets required to be successful no matter what life throws at them in the future.
“We are especially proud of the way they responded to the challenges put before them this year and they deserve all of the accolades that come their way.
“Last year our students showed remarkable resilience and determination.
“As a student body they were able to maintain focus on performing to their best while ensuring they kept an eye on their mates and they provided support when it was needed.”
Mr Seal said the OSC school leavers had so far included nine students accepted into apprenticeships, two traineeships and one who had started a commercial pilot’s licence course and is almost qualified to fly solo already.
“Our focus is always on trying to help students find a suitable pathway and for some students that means helping achieve the best possible ATAR score,” he said.
Mallacoota later years head teacher, Peter Embleton, said the students had been a fantastic group right through from primary school
“They’ve done so well, it’s absolutely outstanding, ” Mr Embleton said.
“We were interrupted by bushfires which were very disruptive but school was a safe place to be.”
He said of the eight VCE students and three VCAL students, three had scored in the 80s, while two students had early applications with Australian National University and he expected the outcome to be “very good”.
“Congratulations to all our families and staff.”