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From highs to lows, students share their reactions to their ATAR results on TikTok, while others reassure students that their results aren’t as important as they think.
We all need a bit of good news and this video mash-up of some of Victoria’s top students receiving their ATAR results is your dose of it.
That concludes our live coverage of the 2021 VCE results.
It’s been a busy day where we were able to spotlight the remarkable and resilient students who went through so much in the past two years to get to this point.
As Adam Carey and Madeleine Heffernan write in this piece we’ve just published: “Resilience might be the defining trait of the class of 2021, which endured two years of uncertainty and stop-start schooling while completing their VCE”.
We will have the VCE Honour Roll for you explore first thing tomorrow.
So with that we give a final salute to the remarkable class of 2021. Well done!
Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School Principal Sue Harrap said the online learning practices developed in three months throughout the pandemic would normally take in a school five years to refine.
“The desire to learn and evolve and adapt has been just so strong. And the change in teaching and learning practice has happened so rapidly,” she said.
“We’ve found new technologies, we’ve found new ways of doing things and we’ve gotten ready for the next run. We were hoping moving into 2021, that we wouldn’t have to use them.
Mac.Robertson School Captain Alexa Kalathoor said the online learning in 2020, when she was in year 11, allowed her a “practice run” for the form her learning would take in her final year.
Thomas Shaddock and Ben Shaw went through primary and secondary school together and ended up with perfect scores.
The close friends are among dozens of the country’s highest-achieving students to be offered scholarships by the University of Melbourne for their matching 99.95 ATARs.
The pair attended Braemar College, a private school in picturesque Mount Macedon, and got through the year playing table tennis and chess, working casual jobs and finishing Scouts.
“I always made sure I did the work,” said Ben.
More than half of Strathcona Girls Grammar’s VCE students (52.3 per cent) received an ATAR of 90 or more, with the school’s median ATAR at 90.35.
Alyssa Yap is the school’s Dux, achieving an ATAR of 99.85.
Almost half of St Columba’s College VCE students achieved an ATAR over 80, 20 per cent over 90 and 8 per cent over 95.
College dux Therese Hockey achieved an ATAR of 99.05.
Melbourne Girls Grammar recorded a median ATAR average of 90.55, with half of the class of 2021 receiving an ATAR of 90 or more.
About 7 per cent of students were in the top 1 per cent of the state with a rank of 99 or higher.
Dylan Negri, 18, started experiencing headaches and became ill back in 2016 before he was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, an aggressive grade 4 brain tumour that required emergency brain surgery along with radiation and chemotherapy.
His secondary school years were hampered by hospital visits and health obstacles.
But with unwavering determination, the St Helena Secondary College student has officially achieved his goal of finishing Year 12.
“Every morning I’d have to move very slowly, I’d have to eat slowly, so I could manage the nausea and not get sick,” Dylan said.
Leongatha Secondary College acting principal Brad Hutchinson said more students achieved an ATAR over 70 this year.
This year’s college dux is Phillip Smith, who scored an ATAR of 93.75.
“Considering everything that these students have had to encounter, it is a real credit to their work ethic and the support that has come from their teachers and families,” Mr Huthinson said.
At Ruyton Girls’ School, 12 per cent of student achieved ATARS of 99 or more, and 58 per cent over 90.
The median ATAR was 92.65.
Majaddid Ali completed his VCE with the odds stacked against him.
The Hume Central Secondary College student and his entire family caught COVID-19 in term three this year, just as his year 12 exams loomed, education editor Adam Carey reports.
His father and his mother became so ill they were both put in intensive care, meaning 17-year-old Majaddid suddenly had responsibility for his five younger siblings.
You can read Majaddid’s remarkable story here.