By Renee Wood
Year 12 students have expressed a sigh of relief today after receiving their final results after more than a decade in the classroom.
Healesville High School saw four students receive an ATAR over 90 out of 24 year 12 VCE students.
Student Aysha Nikcevich has also been named the school dux after receiving a score of 92.25.
“I was not expecting what I got, so I was very happy this morning,” Miss Nikcevich said.
Miss Nikcevich will now be looking at her study options for next year in environmental and research areas, with the pandemic affecting plans to travel in a gap year.
“I think I probably will go into it next year, because of Covid I can’t really travel and that’s what I would have done in the gap year so I may as well get into.”
Damian Mullens was on of the four, and grateful to receive a 91.95.
“I got my study scores before my ATAR and I was really excited, but I couldn’t open my ATAR for another 20 minutes, so it was a huge relief,” he said.
The score will help push Mr Mullens into the right direction of his dream career in medicine and said having a goal to work towards really helped him over the past two years.
“My time at school was pretty rocky, I was quite a badly behaved kid to say the least and I pulled my act together in year 11 and I got a good score for one of the year 12 subjects I did and then that motivated me to keep going and doing well, and then I got the scores this year that I was not expecting to get.”
Kaela Willensem also was in shock when she saw her score of 90.10.
“I woke up at seven and I looked at my study skills first in the email, and I saw one good study score and I thought ‘holy moly’ and I got up and looked and it was really shocking – very, very happy,” Miss Willensem.
Miss Willensem is still figuring out what she wants to do next year but will enjoy relaxing after a difficult time for all students over the last two years of schooling.
“They have been stressful and at times I’ve fallen behind but you just have to get it done.
“I’m a pretty hard worker and when I am doing something I want to do my best so I just did that.”
The graduating class of 2021 certainly has proven their resilience, getting through a strange time through remote learning, mask wearing and pandemic pressures.
Principal Alan Rennick said this cohort interestingly has top and tailed their schooling with disasters.
“My overriding emotion is relief that we got to this point, but also just really proud of this group of kids because they started with bushfires [2009] and they finished with two years of Covid remote learning and everything that goes along with that, and they’ve just done a brilliant job to get to here,” Mr Rennick said.
The top scorers’ message to next year’s leaders is hard work really does pay off, after all three students knuckled down and expected a score in the 80s.
“Work hard because it pays off, it sounds bad doing that much work, but it really pays off in the end,” Miss Nikcevich said.
“Setting goals and aiming for those is what kept me on track,” Mr Mullens said.
“Just keep working hard and you’ll get it,” Miss Willensen said.
