SOUTH East high-achieving students were acknowledged for exceptional education achievements recently at the South Australian Certificate of Education (SACE) Merit Ceremony.
Held at Adelaide’s Government House, the celebrating acknowledged students who achieved a perfect score in one of more of their Year 12 subjects studied in 2018.
Grant and Mount Gambier high schools, along with and Tenison Woods College, each had students represented at the event, forming a group of 902 youths who were awarded a collective 1141 merit awards.
Merit certificates were awarded to Tenison Woods College Year 12 graduates Courtney De Barro for English, Sophie Donaldson for visual arts, Caitlyn Poel, Laura Cesario, Chloe Futcher and James Gazzard all for English and Evangelia Wichmann for integrated learning.
Grant High School merit award recipients included Georgia Monkley for communication products one, as well as Cody Lewis and Ella Firth for general mathematics.
Mount Gambier High School merit receivers included Year 12 graduate Jasper Whitehead for general mathematics and Ben Dawe for chemistry.
Mount Gambier High senior school assistant principal Samantha Brown said the results were a wonderful reflection of the hard work and effort by the school’s students.
“It also shows the calibre of the teaching and support staff we have working with and inspiring students to reach their goals,” she said.
“I would like to recognise teachers Melissa Attiwill, Steve Hall and Kate Redemski for their part in supporting Ben and Jasper to achieve merits in their respective subjects.”
In total, 14,824 students completed their SACE in 2018, compared to 15,175 in 2017.
78.2pc of students who started their Personal Learning Plan in 2016 went on to complete their SACE in 2018.
A decrease of students from rural South Australia completed their SACE in 2018 with 3840 students submitting completion compared with 4050 in 2017.
A total of 364 Aboriginal students completed their SACE, compared with 377 in 2017.
Up from 235 the previous year, 239 students with an intellectual disability completed SACE by studying at least one modified subject.
286 students who completed their SACE included a VET course in their studies, compared with 6324 students the previous year.
2488 students completed a Certificate III VET qualification in their SACE, up from 2205 in 2017.
In total, 11,787 students gained an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank for entry into universities, down from 12,153 in 2017.
The ceremony also included the awarding of 25 Governor of South Australia Commendations, including four to students who achieved merits for five or more subjects, including research project.
