Our Dux ATAR this year was this year’s school captain Philip Cao who scored an outstanding 99.5. Philip has accepted an offer from the University of Sydney to study a Bachelor of Engineering Honours with Space Engineering Major in association with the prestigious Dalyell Scholars Program.
There was a 0.2 difference in ATAR between first and second place and we congratulate Liam La on this achievement. Third placegetter was Vedant Agrawal (98.75) who was the recipient earlier this year of a prestigious NSW Minister’s Award for Excellence in Student Achievement. Vedant, along with Kelly O, will be studying a double degree of Bachelor of Vision Science/Master of Clinical Optometry at UNSW. Our school captain Amy Duong was 0.5 behind Vedant; Amy has accepted an Arts/Law offer from the University of Sydney also studying in the prestigious Dalyell Scholars Program. Furthermore, Amy and Philip were also the recipients of the University of Sydney Future Leaders Awards.
HSC All Rounder Awards are exemplary achievement awards presented to students whom receive a band 6 or E4 result in 10 units or more of course work from the NSW Education Standards Authority. We congratulate Philip Cao, Vedant Agrawal and Ryan Nguyen on this achievement. We also congratulate Ryan on being successful in the UNSW Co-operative scholarships. Ryan will receive $18,200 per year of study at UNSW for four years during his Software Engineering course.
Other scholarship standouts include school vice-captain Angelina Nguyen, Vishaal Kumar and Matthew Koma. Angelina has gained a place into the prestigious Conservatorium of Music with an ATAR of 97.5. She has elected to enter into the Bachelor of Music (Secondary Education) course and has been successful in obtaining a $6,000 scholarship towards her first year of study. Vishaal Kumar scored a 96 ATAR with subjects that included Standard English and General Math 2 – this is not an easy thing to do! He has accepted the offer of a Cadetship at UTS to study a Bachelor of Information Technology, in which he will be partnering with big businesses that provide a $50 000 scholarship to assist him in his studies. Matthew Koma, who arrived in Australia from Iraq as a refugee five years ago, was awarded a Friends of Zainab Tertiary Scholarship from the Public Education Foundation worth $2000 for each of his first two years in university. Matthew intends to take-up the unconditional offer made to him by Western Sydney University, to study a Bachelor of Medical Science from 2019.
These 2018 magnificent achievements have only resulted because of hard work, dedication, self-belief and true grit!
Thank you to all students who have shared their success with us thus far. We look forward to letting our school community know more about our students’ futures pathways, as they are emerge.
We acknowledge all the hard work and tireless efforts from both students and teachers and thank parents for their support and collaboration with us. It’s been another big year!
On a personal note, may I thank the PHS community on a wonderful six-month introduction to our great school. I am looking forward to what 2019 and beyond brings. Wishing our staff and community a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.
Ms Belinda Giudice, Principal
