P12 students overachieve with fantastic ATARs

By Simon Ruppert

Dec 21, 2021

Students across the Rose City breathed a collective sigh of relief on Thursday, December 16, when VCE results were released.

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Benalla P-12 College principal Tony Clark said he was proud of his students’ results and wished them all luck in the next stage of their lives.

“Our kids have done really well this year,” Mr Clarke said.

“They have actually shown some really strong improvement over the last couple of years with some great scores in the 60, 70 and 80 range, and we’re really pleased with that.

“Our Dux is a young man called Charlie Paterson. Charlie got an ATAR of 93.45.

“We’re incredibly proud of him, and incredibly pleased with his results and his effort throughout the year.

“Our VCAL student of the year is a young fella called Harry Hodge.

“Harry’s done a fantastic job to get through Year 12 and he’s done really well in all his subjects, particularly his VET subjects.

“He’s done a fantastic job and we’re really proud of him as well.

“This group of kids has been amazing throughout COVID. They came back from remote learning and they hit the ground running.

“They were really positive, really productive, they accepted things and didn’t whinge and complain.

“They came back with a fantastic attitude. They got in and did what they needed to do and they’ve all come out with really strong results so we are proud of all of them.”

Charlie Paterson said he was relieved that all his hard work had paid off.

“I’m very keen for the next chapter in my life and to go off to Uni next year,” Mr Paterson said.

Hard work pays off: Harry Hodge is the Benalla P-12 College VCAL student of the year for 2021.

“I’m planning on studying Law and the arts, either at Monash or LaTrobe.”

You might remember Mr Paterson as being one of the “Climate Change Captains” who arranged protests and spoke to Benalal Rural City Council about declaring a climate change emergency.

He said he planned to continue his activism once he gets to uni.

“I know there are several activist groups at both unis, so I’d be keen to get involved in some of the politics when I get down there,” he said.

“I’d like to thank my parents, Kate and Ian, and all my teachers for giving us the best opportunity to learn given the substantial disruptions and even though its been a really hard year, their efforts to make sure our learning is engaging fun and enjoyable has been very impressive.”