Thirteen years of schooling has come to an end for tens of thousands of students across Victoria.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
The final piece of the puzzle has arrived for those completing the Victorian Certificate of Education — with students’ official results rolling in from from 7am on Thursday, December 12.
The class of 2024, some 61,998 students, have completed VCE, including 8250 VCE Vocational Major students, who gained practical experience in one or more industries through VET studies.
The overall VCE completion rate in Victoria was 97.4 per cent and Year 12 students across the state will now make the choice to go to university, TAFE, start an apprenticeship or traineeship, start working or take some time off.
Among those hundreds of students across the region who finished this year are the 2024 duxes: Emily Polidano from St Joseph’s College Echuca and Tegan Lenne from Echuca College, as well as Jude Ryan from Rochester Secondary College, Sarah Whelan and Piper Badgery from St Augustine’s College Kyabram and Ethan Carrington from Kyabram P-12 College.
St Joseph’s College dux Emily Polidano received an ATAR of 89.2.
Emily’s high ATAR was mainly due to her stellar performance in arts and humanities subjects, including a 47 in visual communications design and 43 in media.
She has received an early entry to Swinburne University to study media and communications, but upon receiving her ATAR is now holding out for a double degree offer of design and media and communications, also at Swinburne.
Emily intends to pursue a career in PR, advertising and brand management within the beauty and fashion industries.
She reflected on her and her family’s reaction to her marks on Thursday morning and how her senior year of high school unfolded.
“When I clicked on to my ATAR this morning my mother was crying and my dad was hugging me, it was a really nice moment for us,” she said.
“I had a lot of pressure that I put on myself throughout Year 12, I knew it was going to be difficult, but I wanted to do my best,” she said.
“My family are really supportive, so I knew they’d be happy with whatever I got as long as I tried my best, but I wanted to do it for myself.
“At the start of the year I thought I was going to get a 75 and I would’ve been happy with that but to open my ATAR this morning and see I got an 89 was insane.
“Looking back I am amazed at how much I have accomplished this year; I went into all my exams happy and confident, it was very empowering.”
Echuca College dux Tegan Lenne finished her schooling with an ATAR of 95.6.
Tegan’s ATAR has cemented her spot in the top 4.5 per cent of students across the state.
In her final year, she undertook English language, biology, chemistry, maths methods and specialist maths, after she fast-tracked psychology in Year 11.
Of the seven subjects, she performed the best in biology.
Tegan said the results came as a surprise.
“I knew I would do relatively well but it was still a shock,” she said.
“I looked at my email first which gave you the raw study score and I thought it was going to be bad but then I checked online and I was surprised.
“I’m pretty sure I yelled and woke my younger sister up but my parents were pretty happy, they were sharing the news to my grandparents straight away.”
She added that being consistent with her studies throughout the year helped a lot.
“I was consistent throughout the year, I think the biggest challenge was the exams because they were stressful,” she said.
“Doing well throughout the year was kind of good to know because I knew that I had it to fall back on.”
Tegan looks forwards to studying a Bachelor of Science at the University of Melbourne.
Although she hasn’t chosen a specific career path yet, she hopes to find a career in the world of science.
Rochester Secondary College 2024 dux is Jude Ryan, who received an ATAR of 95.05.
Jude is planning to study agriculture at La Trobe University Bundoora or physiotherapy at La Trobe University Bendigo, ultimately aiming to work in Rochy.
“I see myself in a local job,” he said.
“Close to family, close to friends. I really enjoy my footy, so to be able to play for my local club in Rochester too.”
Jude’s full profile will be in the Tuesday, December 17, edition of Campaspe News and online at campaspenews.com.au
Congratulations to all the duxes and all students who completed their final year of schooling.