MOUNT Gambier High School’s Claire Day is the toast of her peers after topping the Brownes Road facility’s class of 2019 with yesterday’s release of Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) results.
With an ATAR of 97.3, Claire was among the top tier of the 15,000-plus students who celebrated the completion of their South Australian Certificate of Education yesterday, the state’s largest contingent in nine years.
While proud of her result, Claire said she way happy to have completed her secondary schooling.
“It is a relief to now have our scores and know there is nothing else we can do to change them,” she said.
“I think we all worked really hard studying and preparing for exams so it is a great feeling to finally see the result of that.”
Claire was joined by Sharni McDonald (90.60) and Sophie Charlton (88.95) as her school’s highest achievers, with all three receiving the scores needed to pursue their chosen tertiary studies.
Sharni will make the move to Adelaide in early 2020, eager to continue her studies and keep herself motivated.
“I think if I had a gap year I might not push myself to go to uni,” she said.
“I want to keep that momentum going and get uni under way.”
Despite Sharni’s life-changing move, Claire and Sophie will stay in the Blue Lake city until at least 2021, with plans to work during the break.
“It was important to save enough money to move to Adelaide for uni, so that is what I am doing in my gap year,” Sophie said.
“I think the majority of our year group will take a gap year, some are even taking two years.”
With a new chapter of their lives beginning, Claire said it was a bitter-sweet time.
“We are all getting out into the real world now,” she said.
“This means a job or uni and maybe moving away.
“It is strange to think we will not be able to see all of our friends every day, but I think we will all end up in the same place in the end.
“Almost everyone is looking at going to uni in Adelaide, so we will still have that friendship group when we head up.”
As Mount Gambier is classed as a rural area, students are eligible for extra points to gain entry into university.
Despite being five hours from Adelaide, the trio believe the points are not always necessary.
“I do not think we are that disadvantaged living here than in Adelaide,” Claire said.
“We cannot always do all of the courses we might like to because there are not enough students, or you might have to join a Year 11 class, but I do not think it is that much worse.
“I plan to do something in business and although I would have liked to cover some of those topics in Year 12 to give me a bit of headstart, there is no prerequisites to my course so I do not think it will make a huge difference.”
Mount Gambier High School followed suit with the state’s increase in SACE participants, with 91.7pc of students completing, a jump from 90.11pc in 2018.
This year has also seen a record 2815 students complete a VET Certificate III across the state and 1151 merit certificates were awarded to 892 students.
“It is fantastic this year has seen the highest number of SACE completers in nine years and I congratulate each and every one of the 15,276 students who have achieved their certificate in 2019,” Education Minister John Gardner said.
“They have worked incredibly hard over many years to achieve a world-class qualification that sets them up for future success in South Australia and across the world.”
