Echuca’s highest scorers

Echuca College’s dux Aaron Fleischer scored a whopping 98.65, while St Joseph’s College’s Callum Walker soared to a 97.90.

Rochester Secondary School’s Sam Ryan scored a mammoth 95.85 to become dux.

Moama Anglican Grammar’s dux is due to be announced on Thursday when the HSC results are released.

Callum has applied for the University of Melbourne’s Bachelor of Science program and hopes to major in physics.

“I’d like to go into research,” he said.

“Research interests me more than experimental or the practical side.”

Meanwhile, Aaron is not completely sure what he’d like to do now, but is heading to Monash to study engineering.

“I’ll do a first year and then decide from there what specialisation I’d like to do,” he said.

Aaron said he was surprised he received such a high score.

“My goal was always to get in the 90s, but I didn’t think I’d get that high, to be honest,” he said.

“I always thought that the high 90s was for the elite of the elite, and for all the private schools in Melbourne that are always really good.”

Aaron encouraged students going into their final years of school to try their best.

“You never know what you can get if you try, and you might be surprised like I was with how high you can actually get and not even realise it,” he said.

“At the start of the year, for me, it felt like it was going pretty slowly, but by the time you get into the swing of things it goes by really quick, so make sure you enjoy the year.”

Callum encouraged students to have a balanced final year in school.

“It’s important to focus on Year 12, but it’s just as important to have balance,” he said.

“For me, having a job and having a social life, that was really important for me because Year 12 seems like such a big deal, but at the end of it you need a broad range of skills.”

Echuca College principal Jessica Sargeant congratulated the students on their results and commended their hard work over the course of the year.

“It has been a very disruptive year for these students,” she said.

“We had four high achievers and a number of students in the 70s range.

“All the kids that did exams had good results in terms of their scores.”

Ms Sargeant said some students chose not to complete their exams this year, and instead got a derived score from their assessments and their GAT.

"The derived score helped them because they’d lost their house, or were evacuated and living with 15 other people at a time. It was pretty difficult,“ she said.

“We’re happy as a school with how the kids have gone.

“We’re proud of their resilience, and even to stay at school and finish after these last few years is amazing.”

St Joseph’s College principal Anne Marie Cairns has also congratulated the hard working students on the completion of their schooling.

“As we are all aware, the past three years have been very disruptive for this cohort of students,” she said.

“I am incredibly proud of the way they have responded to the challenges presented to them with strength and courage, and for the way they have maintained their commitment to their studies.

“These results are testament to the hard-working teachers, leadership team, students and families involved with St Joseph’s over many years, and ones which we can all be very proud of.”