With results released on Tuesday, December 17 it was revealed that four Corowa High School students were the recipients of five Distinguished Achievers awards – an honour which is given to those who achieved an overall grade in the highest band (Band 6 or Band E4) for one or more courses in the state.
The school’s principal, Dr Joanne Bellette, said that this result proves that Corowa can brush shoulders with some of the best schools in NSW.
“Statistically we hear over and over again that kids in rural schools underperform in comparison to metropolitan schools but there’s no question that Corowa High School bucks that trend,” she told The Free Press.
“Repeatedly we show that we can compete with even some of the best schools, whether that’s in the local area but even the whole state where we’re right up there.”
“Overall the school has some amazing results this year and that was an attestation to the fact that we had a really great cohort of students who buckled down and really worked hard to achieve but also realised that life didn’t only exist at school.”
The crop of Distinguished Achievers from Corowa were Montana Hargreaves in Visual Arts, Cameron Wilson in Industrial Technology – Timber, Gabby Sutcliffe for Biology and year 11 student Jacob Reid who won dual awards for Software Design and Mathematics.
17-year-old Jacob said his hard work studying for the exam had paid off.
“I did a lot of study leading up to the actual exam by going back and doing every year 12 mathematics exam since 2002.
“I also tried to balance it out with work and sport so I didn’t burn out which I think is important to do.”
Thanapath Tongsuk has had a unique schooling journey at Corowa High School. The Thai born student moved to Australia four years ago and had to learn the English language from scratch which he admits was challenging.
“I’ve always been good at maths but with worded questions it was sometimes hard to answer,” he said.
But Thanapath was able to work through obstacles and achieve an excellent result in his HSC to propel him closer to his dream career.
“I’ve been offered a position at the University of Newcastle studying Civil Engineering and from there I’d like to keep studying to become an architect.”
School captain Olivia Hughes is another student that has received early entry to her desired course, but she will take a different route and use 2020 as a gap year.
“I’ve received an unconditional offer to Canberra University to study Software Engineering but have deferred that and will instead joining the Royal Australian Navy in January.
“I did some work experience with the air force and the navy in year 10 and really enjoyed the navy. My goal is to eventually do a degree through them.”
Principal Bellette reiterated that HSC isn’t a precursor for the rest of your life and that opportunities are always available to those who seek them, regardless of scores.
“Students at our school realise that life doesn’t exist only at school – with study, they continue to play sport and they continue to socialise.
“An important thing we push with our students is that it doesn’t start and end with the HSC. There are tons of alternative career pathways that exist.”