Albury and Corowa students achieve excellent HSC results after overcoming several COVID hurdles

His backup was a career in medicine.

The Albury High School graduate has given himself the chance to pursue it, achieving an ATAR of 97.5 to be crowned dux after the release of HSC results on Thursday.

Lachlan achieved a band 6 in chemistry, physics, engineering studies and advanced maths, a band five in advanced English and an E4 in maths extension.

"A lot of effort and a lot of time has been put in, not only by me, but by teachers who've given up their time to help, my family and friends as well," he said.

"I do athletics and I injured myself in February, which put me out for the year, so it's given me a bit more time to study."

Lachlan's preference was to study at the University of New South Wales in Sydney to become an orthopedic surgeon, but he won't know until offers are released in January.

He said he would be happy to return to Albury to begin his career.

"I can deal with sport injuries and still stay in that realm," he said.

Ryan Yensch still has a year of school to go, but is off to a great start after he achieved a band six 6 in advanced maths and an E4 in maths extension.

"My main focus was keeping up with Lachie (Carty) because he's very smart. It was a very good challenge, he beat me in the end, but it was a bit of friendly competition," he said.

Ryan would like to have a career in robotics and will study engineering, physics, chemistry, software and advanced English next year.

Amelia Spinks is keen to pursue a career in illustration and will explore course options after receiving a score of 86.9.

She had focus on creative subjects with strong results in visual arts, advanced English and English extension, along with ancient history, standard maths and French continuers.

Her major art project, which she described as "a series of sculptures of original characters", was among her best school experiences, despite the challenges brought about by COVID.

Amelia said a goal of hers was to write her own children's book.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Albury High School principal Damian Toohey said the results were impressive given the year 12 group only had one set of formal exams before the HSC.

"They've really worked hard this year to reach their goals and many of them got early entry into university," he said.

"Many of them were affected by COVID at various stages, so they missed a lot of school."

Mr Toohey also paid tribute to Sophie Dawson, who was invited to Callback, the annual showcase of standout performances by HSC students of dance.

"She studies dance over at James Fallon High School, with Katrina Joss. Being able to switch to another school and study with an expert teacher is fantastic," he added.

Xavier High School dux Liam Plunkett was "shocked" to learn of his 99.20 ATAR, which included a score of 99 in advanced maths.

The cricket and football fanatic hopes to combine his passion for numbers and sport into a career as a statistician.

"I'm going to take a gap year and work at (accounting firm) Johnsons MME in the data area for a year. I've got an early offer at ANU and I'm also waiting to hear back from RMIT for statistics and mathematics," he said.

Charlotte Benson had a nervous wait after exams, but was rapt with her ATAR of 94.60, which she hopes will allow her to study medicine at university.

She has a passion for rural health and would love to return to the area as a GP or paediatrician.

"I've always been a fan of the science of it and the idea of helping people and having an impact on my community really appeals to me as well," she said.

"At this stage, my preference is the University of New South Wales, but I'm also looking at Tasmania and Queensland."

Luke Lowry did not expect to wake up to an ATAR of 91.95, but will now have some thinking to do about a career path.

"I was really happy with the results and I got what I worked for," he said.

"I'm having a gap year and working at O'Brien Transport and then I'll most likely head off to uni."

Toby Robinson has his heart set on studying science at Melbourne's Monash University after a 90.55 ATAR result.

He also has an early offer to study radiology at Charles Sturt University in Wagga.

"I did well in music and art, which I did not see coming and I was really happy with biology as well," he said.

"There was definitely a lot of challenges with COVID and we had a lot of natural disasters with fire and floods and even an earthquake."

Xavier High's leader of learning and teaching Shane Piper said all students completed the HSC with 32 per cent having attained a band 6 and 70 per cent a band 5, while more than half received early university offers.

"We're very pleased with the results for our hard-working students and we also take this opportunity to thank families and teachers for the commitment to the past 13 years of schooling," he said

James Fallon High principal Jennifer Parrett revealed every year 12 student at the school had been brokered an early entry offer.

"They had year 10, year 11 and year 12 all disrupted and they've got the outcome that they deserve," she said.

"We had some awesome results in visual art, dance, legal studies and extension English.

"We also had our International Big Picture Learning Credential start, which is a completely portfolio-based entry to university and we've had one young person achieve law."

Caitlyn Martin was the school's dux and will study law at ANU after securing a $150,000 Tuckwell Scholarship.

Mrs Parrett said she is determined to be known for her future contributions to society in the legal field, not for her HSC and ATAR results, which she chose not to disclose.

"She hopes to support others through the law into the future and his looking forward to relocating to the ACT," Mrs Parrett said.

There was a tie for dux honours at The Scots School Albury as both Georgia Miller and Mitchell Russell had an ATAR of 97.45.

"We're extremely happy with our core subjects. We had 50 per cent of our students in extension maths achieve an E4 and 12 per cent of our advanced English students achieved a band six," acting principal Kelly McKay said.

"We scored highly in visual arts and music, which we're well known for, with 100 per cent of our students achieving a band 5 or 6, while we had design and technology nine per cent above the state average and agriculture eight per cent above the state average."

Jasmine Walters was dux of Murray High School after achieving band 5 and 6 in all of her subjects.

She will work full-time next year to save money for university where she hopes to study secondary teaching major in legal studies or art criticism.

"I'm not overly disappointed with my ATAR or HSC marks, I was definitely holding out hope for much higher scores, but I'm still proud of what I received," Jasmine said.

"Going to class was more enjoyable when my teachers built individual teacher-student friendships. We all had a laugh and still managed to learn the hard and hectic content."

Megan Partington, Paris Barnes and Jackson Quilty were also recognised with awards for outstanding final years.

More than 30 per cent of Murray High students will pursue tertiary studies, while 25 per cent are employed after securing apprenticeships and traineeships.

Trinity Anglican College had 10 band 6 and three E4 results, along with 91 band 5 and nine E3 scores.

One student got five distinguished achiever awards and was among 10 per cent of the year 12 group to have an ATAR of 90 or above.

"Students and teachers at Trinity should be extremely proud of these results. I know I am," principal Dr Adrian Johnson said.

Corowa High School students excelled in computer-based subjects, ranking well above the state average in industrial technology multimedia.

"We got a significant number of band fives and sixes, which exceeded expectations," principal Joanne Bellette said.

To read more stories, download The Border Mail news app in the Apple Store or Google Play.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: