I write to congratulate our Class of 2018 for their outstanding VCE results this year. All 169 of our students who completed the year satisfactorily met the requirements of the VCE and we are very proud of them all.

The results are again very impressive across the full range of scores: twenty-three students (14%) achieved an ATAR of 99 or better, placing them in the top one per cent of the state. Thirty-one per cent of our students achieved a rank of 95 or better, while 50% of our students achieved a score of 90 or better, placing them in the top ten per cent of the State. Ninety five percent of our students were in the top 50% of the State. Our median ATAR score was 90.1. These are again extraordinary results and I congratulate our students and their teachers for the hard work they did to achieve them.

At the same time, I am very conscious that some of our students may be feeling disappointed. Not everyone can get very high scores. The ATAR is a ranking system; by definition some students cannot obtain as high a rank as others. Sometimes a student may have set their heart of a particular score – over 99, over 90, somewhere in the 80s – and some may have missed this private goal. But as I have said to the students many times, results alone cannot measure the success of a student’s education. I am very proud of all of our students who did their best, no matter their score. So many of the boys told me in their last few weeks that they felt they could not have worked any harder, and that is the true measure of their success. I was struck this year by the number of teachers who told me how impressed they were by the work ethic of this particular cohort. By that standard, all of our students have achieved amazing results and I am confident that all of our students will ultimately gain entry into a worthwhile and useful tertiary course should they so wish. All students try their best given their ability and the realities of their lives. ATAR numbers will soon be forgotten, but the lessons learned at school, and the values and skills learned here will last forever. We value each one of them, and congratulate them all.

Having said that, it is fitting to recognise the hard work and achievement of our highest scoring students. There were thirteen perfect study scores across a wide range of subjects. Twenty-three per cent of all study scores were 40 or above, which given that we tend to do the more ‘difficult’ VCE subjects is an excellent result.

This year the Duces of our School are Jake Brown and Sepehr Tahmasebi, both of whom scored 99.95. Our Proxime Accesserunt are Charles Li, Charles Huang, Anthony Stewart and Alan Chen, who each who scored 99.90. All six boys were clearly actively involved in the full life of the school and worked very hard at their studies.

A further seventeen students earned scores of 99 or better. These boys also studied a wide range of subjects and actively involved themselves in the life of the school.

I congratulate those of our students who have done well, I commiserate with those who may be feeling disappointed, and I encourage both groups to keep these results in perspective. Results do not make the man, and this day is just one milestone in the long journey ahead. There is a world of opportunity ahead for all of these young men.

I would like once more to publicly acknowledge our remarkable teaching staff who helped our students to achieve these wonderful results. I know that they too are very proud of their students. I also congratulate and thank our parents, who have encouraged their sons by supporting them through the ups and downs of a VCE year.

Congratulations once more to the Class of 2018 on their excellent results. It is pleasing to see that their hard work has been rewarded so generously.

I am pleased to be able to share such good news with you. With every best wish for the Christmas break, and looking forward to 2019.

Dr Paul Hicks,
Headmaster