Matthew Newton of Warrimoo with his father George at St Paul's Grammar School.
Students from St Paul’s Grammar School at Penrith are still celebrating their 2012 International Baccalaureate (IB) results.
Principal Paul Kidson congratulated students, families and staff, noting the outstanding results come from collective efforts.
“These results, combined with our excellent HSC results, confirm the school’s status as Greater Western Sydney’s leading comprehensive school for academic success and a well-rounded education,” he said.
“It is thrilling to see both our IB and HSC students exceed expectations. This has lifted the school’s long term results to even higher levels; more than 40 per cent of students from the combined HSC and IB groups are now regularly earning ATARs higher than 85.00.
“These results highlight the school’s commitment to seeing students flourish, both HSC and IB.”
Kelly Li of Quakers Hill, was the dux of St Paul’s from the class of 2012 with a rare perfect IB score of 45 out of a maximum possible 45, equating to the top possible Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) of 99.95.
A total of 17 students achieved IB scores of 41 or above.
Matthew Newton from Warrimoo received an IB score of 38 (ATAR 96.80) and has been offered a scholarship in Business Management and Accounting through the UNSW Co-op Program.
“The IB is challenging in terms of its intensity across both Year 11 and 12, together with the detailed nature of the course work,” said Matthew.
“You had to be on top of the content across your subjects — even small aspects of the syllabus were required in the final exams.”
Matthew was heavily involved in representative cricket and soccer during his senior years.
“Juggling those commitments was difficult but I decided to keep on competing in those competitions through exams.
“Many of my teammates were continuing to play as well, and it was good to have an outlet through that stressful time before and during final exams,” he said.
Matthew noted that consistency throughout was key to achievement.
“I realise how important paying attention in class is. I had to catch up in areas where I hadn’t focused enough and this was tough.”
Other top scoring IB diploma students at St Paul’s included Pranita Dhanji of Leonay (IB 43, ATAR 99.65), Sol Heredia of Quakers Hill, Alice Tarnawski of Grose Vale, Bronte Goldstien of Grose Vale (all with IB 42, ATAR 99.35), Laura Hall of Woodford (IB 41, ATAR 98.80) and school captain Geordy Armsworth of Bligh Park (IB 40, ATAR 98.20).