LORETO COLLEGE
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Sarah Harrington
ATAR: 99.95
SUBJECTS: Chemistry, French, English Language, Mathematical Methods, Specialist Mathematics, Biology (2019)
Sarah Harrington was sure she was looking at the wrong result when she logged on to get her ATAR at 7am on Wednesday.
She was shocked to see a perfect score of 99.95 - one of just six girls and 32 boys across Victoria to record the top ATAR.
"I thought I didn't go as well as I wanted to. The year was challenging but I tried to stay positive," she said.
She checked the VTAC website by herself in case the score was not what she hoped, but the shock was a good one.
"I thought it was the wrong result and was just shocked with what I got. I went and told dad, who was almost as nervous as me waiting for my result, but he was very happy and very proud as was mum."
Her brother in year 11 also got an early wake up, having said she could wake him only if she scored over 98.
"It feels pretty amazing and I really can't believe it," she said.
Sarah recorded study scores of 50 in English Language, Chemistry and Biology which she completed last year.
Having achieved a 99.95 ATAR Sarah was offered a chancellors scholarship at the University of Melbourne which covers her fees and she plans to study medicine.
."I've aimed for quite a few years to get good marks to get in to medicine," she said. "I've always been interested in science but always interested in helping others and learning about health and the human body and I really want a career that combines all those together and lets me give back to the community."
During lockdown Sarah said she found it hard to keep up motivation but always had her ultimate goal in mind to help keep her working.
"I tried to keep doing sport and exercise - lots of walking, yoga and pilates - to maintain some balance. During lockdown I caught up with family, did sport, and tried not to spend too much time on study which I think really helped look after my mental health."
Even when students were allowed to return to school, Sarah had a plan B in case another lockdown was enforced.
"I tried to start my exam prep early in case something happened leading up to exams. It was hard to stay motivated but I tried to keep chipping away and doing practice exams."
BALLARAT GRAMMAR
Finley Japp
ATAR: 99.9
SUBJECTS: Specialist Mathematics, Literature, Legal Studies, Global Politics, Theatre Studies, English (2019), Mathematical Methods (2019)
A year spent travelling around Australia and fruit picking along the coast awaits Ballarat Grammar's top scorer Finley Japp.
And when he returns he's not entirely sure what he'll do - and he's fine with that.
"After putting in so much hard work in to this year, I need to take a year off and then I'll assess my plans for the year after," he said.
Having achieved an ATAR of 99.9 he's keen to join a Bachelor of Arts course at Melbourne University and see where it leads him.
"I don't know but I'm not worried about not being inspired just yet. I really love literature, writing and politics and I'd love to do teaching for a little while so I'll see where it takes me."
Finley is from Mildura and has been living in a homestay while studying at Ballarat Grammar. After a night of tossing and turning he didn't wake in Ballarat until 8am, worrying his mother who was home in Mildura awaiting his call.
"I looked online and was pleasantly surprised," he said of his high score. "There's a lot of relief too. I felt good about the year but I've been pretty privileged and haven't had the struggles other people have had comparatively.
"I'm relieved about the work I've done and excited I think for the future."
Because so much of 2020 was spent in remote learning, Finley said the times in class were even more memorable than a normal year.
"I remember specific classes that will stay with me for life because they were so impactful," he said.
BALLARAT CLARENDON COLLEGE
Kaylee Tomata
ATAR: 99.9
SUBJECTS: EAL (English as an additional language), Mathematics Methods, Specialist Mathematics, Accounting, Economics, Further Mathematics (2019)
Like her classmates, Japanese boarding student Kaylee Tomata didn't quite have the year she was expecting.
She expected to spend the year studying in Ballarat and living in the school's boarding house, but instead spent about six months living with her sister in Melbourne.
But strong preparation and consistent study throughout the year resulted in her achieving an ATAR of 99.0 and the offer of a scholarship from Melbourne University where she is hoping to study commerce.
While her estimated score was high, Kaylee did not expect to see 99 on the screen when she logged on right on 7am.
"I thought jumping to 99 was pretty hard, like going from 70 to 80 so it was a surprise," she said. "I woke up as soon as the results came up, so I was half sleeping, I got the number and it was so surprising, I was looking at the result with my sister, so it would be a surprise together, then I called my mum.
"As usual, she was over-complimenting me, she was more excited than me."
When coronavirus struck and schools were forced in to remote learning, Kaylee decided to remain as positive as possible.
"I took advantage of remote learning. Usually I can't hang out with my family because I was living in the boarding house, but since I was back at my house in Melbourne and staying with my sister for half the year, the support from my sister was really big for this year," she said.
"My thinking was to choose not to get pessimistic about the situation, try to find something we can enjoy so we don't feel stress about anything too much," she said.
She said the school had connected with students as much as possible during the lockdowns so even though she was not in Ballarat she felt involved in the community and valued being able to easily contact teachers and ask questions.
"I'm not thinking I'm smart, but I always prepare as much as I can to get confident. I think effort counts but results are everything, so to get the satisfactory result, I had to build up my confidence ... by putting the effort into the things I can control," she said.
DAMASCUS COLLEGE
Grace Young-Harvey
ATAR: 99.4
SUBJECTS: Biology, Psychology (in 2019), Further Mathematics, Legal Studies, Health & Human Development and English.
Grace Young-Harvey's ATAR of 99.4 lead to a flurry of phone calls and a scholarship offer, all of which she slept through.
But she plans to head to TAFE at first next year to study a Certificate III in Individual Care which will allow her to work in aged care, community care and nursing homes.
"My brother has a disability so I would love to go in to care of people with a disability or aged care," she said.
She also has her eye on studying health sciences at Swinburne University at some point in the future.
"I would have been happy to have gotten a score of 60 or above, as this is what I require to get in to my course of preference. It is my dream is to get in to the health sciences area as I really want to help people."
Grace said waking to a score of 99.4 was "ridiculous" and far beyond what she was expecting.
"I tried really hard but I don't even know how it happened - it seems so high," she said.
"Everyone had a rough year with COVID-19 and remote learning, so I was especially grateful and shocked when I received my results."
BALLARAT HIGH SCHOOL
Margot Bettles
ATAR: 98.2
SUBJECTS: Mathematical Methods, Chemistry, English, Music, Further Mathematics (2019), Psychology (2019)
Wednesday was moving day as well as VCE ATAR release day for Ballarat High School student Margot Bettles.
With her parents at their new house, she and her sister were at their old house together when Margot found out she scored 98.2.
"I was up waiting for 7am, but then it took me a while to look at the ATAR, I was sitting in the room in the dark just by myself."
And then it was back to filling the moving van.
Margot hopes to get a direct entry offer in to medicine at Monash University, a goal she has been working toward for the past few years.
"It's fascinating learning about how humans work and their minds," she said.
With a passion for music, Margot was not just checking out universities for the courses they offer but for the clubs and bands she can join while she studies.
Playing the saxophone, piano and guitar helped Margot get through the months of remote learning and lockdown, along with reading and spending time with friends.
"Our year level was really good and we were all working off each other the whole year, sharing notes and video calls for study," she said.
ST PATRICK'S COLLEGE
Kai O'Keeffe
ATAR: 98
SUBJECTS: Mathematics, Specialist Mathematics, Literature, Chemistry, Physics, Biology (2019)
St Patrick's College dux Kai O'Keeffe plans to combine celebrations marking the end of his secondary schooling with New Year's Eve celebrations and see out a 2020 that no one could have predicted.
"Most people I've spoken to are pretty happy with their scores and are just glad this year is over and they're moving on to the next stage of their life," he said.
Kai hopes his future will involve a Bachelor of Science with a major in engineering at the University of Melbourne after attaining an impressive ATAR of 98.
"I am really happy with my score and plan to celebrate over the next day or two, combining the celebrations with New Year's Eve," Kai said.
While he was initially considering a career in medicine, engineering has more recently grabbed his attention and the broad nature of the Bachelor of Science means he's open to other fields of science if anything else takes his interest.
Kai logged on to the VTAC website right at 7am to check his ATAR, then woke his parents to share the good news.
"It's been a long year but it's good now to see the result," he said.
"My first response was really excited and surprised. I did better in some things than I expected and worse in others but it evened out."
Kai said the hardest part of 2020 was remote learning and being unable to see his mates.
"There were some good things and some bad things. It was a lot easier if you wanted one-on-one time with teachers to email them and organise a call so I was really happy with that support, but being home for weeks and not seeing anyone was hard.
"I found talking to mates from school really helped but everyone was getting sick of being at home and wanted to get back to school to see each other."
MOUNT CLEAR COLLEGE
Zoe Hunt
ATAR: 94.5
SUBJECTS: English, Japanese, International Development (university subject), Mathematics Methods (2019), Australian History (2019), Psychology (2019)
Mount Clear College dux Zoe Hunt was thankful she completed three of her year 12 subjects in 2019 as it took a little pressure off during a year that threw up more challenges than anyone expected.
"I was very fortunate in that I had done the three subjects last year so compared to a lot of friends I wasn't too stressed with the remote learning," she said.
But studying a second language, Japanese, online was harder than in face to face lessons.
At the same time she was also taking a university acceleration subject on International Development, which counted toward her ATAR of 94.5 and is the direction she'd like her future career to take.
With a strong ATAR her goal is a place in an international studies degree at RMIT where she wants to major in development.
"It's not about necessarily working in third world countries, but about the development of countries as a whole," she explained.
Zoe said her peers at Mount Clear banded together to support each other through the difficult months of remote learning, and she was lucky to be able to balance working two shifts a week at McDonalds with her studies and get out of the house during lockdown.
BALLARAT CHRISTIAN COLLEGE
Esther McKee
ATAR: 90.5
SUBJECTS: English, Mathematical Methods, Chemistry, Certificate III in Christian Studies, Visual Communication, Psychology.
Esther McKee is the third of her family to be named dux of Ballarat Christian College.
The youngest of six siblings, Esther was college captain and while her ATAR was a little lower than she hoped for, it should guarantee her entry in to a Bachelor Degree in Primary and Secondary Inclusive Education at Monash University - a course that has been her goal during the challenging year.
"I always had teaching at the back of my mind as an option and something i would enjoy, then I saw this course and it's something I don't know a lot about and it would be helpful in many different circumstances," she said.
"It's important as a teacher to know how to make the classroom accessible for every student."
While studying at Monash would mean moving out of home, she has seen her elder siblings tread the same path and is excited at the extra freedom it means but daunted at the same time.
Esther said 2020 had been a tough year but her school and church community had pulled together to provide support
"I'm a very planning type of person, I like to plan things and all of the plans this year went out the window," she said.
"But I think school and our community did well at adapting to it and doing the best. There was definitely a lot of support - they understood how difficult it was."
PHOENIX P-12 COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Alicia Mroz
ATAR: 87.75
SUBJECTS: English, Chemistry, Further Mathematics, Psychology, Health, Biology (2019)
It's been a tough year in more ways than one for Alicia Mroz who moved home several times, had to become independent at 17 and deal with months of COVID-induced remote learning.
But next year will be a fresh start when she moves to Townsville to study marine science at James Cook University.
"My mum has always taken our family travelling, that's always been a priority rather than the material things ... going to the coast, meeting people in the field, and studying stuff at school," she said.
"And doing projects on the environment, learning about climate change ... that's a field I want to go in to so I can help protect it for the future.
"I've always travelled and why would I stay here when Australia has got some great marine life that I want to help."
Wednesday was a day of double celebration for Alicia - receiving her ATAR as highest scorer at Phoenix P-12 Community College and marking the 18th birthday of her housemate who also got a good ATAR.
Alicia said teachers and friends helped her get through difficult personal circumstances through the year.
"The teachers worked with me, made me keep pushing and I never wanted to give up because they were always working hard with me," she said.
Getting the courage to ask teachers for extra help made all the difference, and building a personal relationship with them made her want to study harder.
"With remote learning I felt like I didn't want to annoy the teachers, life if you online call them you're going in to their personal world whereas if you're at school you can stay after school ... but they were really helpful and it was hard but it made the learning more personal and interconnected," she said.
MOUNT ROWAN SECONDARY COLLEGE
Callum Roberts
ATAR: not disclosed
SUBJECTS: English, Mathematics, Further Mathematics, History, Legal Studies, Biology, Media (2019)
Callum Roberts hopes that one day soon you'll see his name on the credits of a movie, documentary or television show.
He's been offered a place in two film and television courses in South Melbourne and now just has to decide which one he'll take up.
"My main goal is to eventually direct films, but working on films in any capacity is a goal at the moment," he said.
"Part of the course is an internship on actual sets of shows and films, and you have to make your own films, documentaries and broadcasts as part of the course."
Callum said he had always loved film and television and it was the only thing he could think about doing after school.
While COVID brought the production industry to a halt during much of 2020, it also hampered Callum's studies and forced him to work longer hours in his part-time job.
During the early stages of the pandemic Callum, who works at Coles, was often working until 3am because of how busy the store was.
"It was a pretty tough year. The first lockdown happened and working from home I really had no motivation to do my classwork and it was really hard, but once the second lockdown happened it was a lot easier because I was more familiar with it, but it wasn't easy," he said.
WOODMANS HILL SECONDARY COLLEGE
Charlie Stone
ATAR: not disclosed
SUBJECTS: not available
Woodmans Hill Secondary College dux Charlie Stone was successful in gaining a first round offer to study science at the University of Melbourne after committing herself to her studies this year.
Charlie also received the Dorothy Irene Ellis Thomas Scholarship to help with her tertiary studies.
"We are so proud of her achievements and the achievements of the class of 2020 who have improved on both the average study score and top ATAR of last year," said principal Stephan Fields.