Taree school students brush aside bushfires, COVID to focus on final year exams
It is the beginning of the end today of 13 years of school education for year 12 students on the Mid-North Coast. Preparations for the commencement of today’s HSC have been rocky, but Chatham High School leaders say they’re ready to tackle the two-week exams head on.
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Twelve months ago, 70 students from Chatham High School’s year 11 cohort where just entering their final year of studies without much of a care in the world.
Fast forward to today, and you couldn’t have scripted a stranger 2020 for Mid-North Coast students who’ve had to juggle their Year 12 journey with the threat of disastrous bushfires, a global pandemic and new-age remote learning.
But it’s hardly had a dampener on the attitudes of Chatham High School captain Will Sawyer and vice-captain Cooper Armstrong, who are heading into today’s High School Certificate (HSC) head on.
“It’s all we’ve really known,” Will said of this year’s disrupted studies.
“I will say though, studying from home was probably the most difficult part, because you have to adapt to doing it on your own and having your own motivation – something we don’t always have.
“Also, it’s a lot easier to get distracted by family and other influences. “That [homeschooling] was definitely the biggest struggle.”
Both 18-year-olds will join just about every other year 12 student across the state today to sit the first exam on the HSC timetable – English.
Chatham High School students will have the good fortune of being able to attend school and sit their exams together, with a range of COVID protocols in place including contract tracing and temperature checks.
Preparations, the pair say, are the best they could be given the circumstances they’ve faced.
“I’d like to be a little bit more prepared, but there’s not much I can really do about that now,” Cooper said.
“I don’t think it’s really hit home yet though that the exams are actually tomorrow [Tuesday].
Chatham High School Principal Daryl Irvine said he could not have been prouder of his students and the remarkable job they’ve done in getting to this point.
“Just the resilience of these guys, has just been a real hallmark of what could have been an extremely difficult time,” he said.
“That normal anxiety about the unknown that we’ve all experienced, our worry was that this was going to have a multiplying effect on students who might have already been worried about their exams.
“But in reality, they’ve been really stoic about it and a lot of them have taken on the fact they’re already doing the HSC, albeit a little bit disjointed, but they’re now definitely skilled up to take on the challenge.
“These guys adapted to remote learning really well, they adapted to the online communication and online channels really well … in some cases, a lot better than some of their teachers.”
Mr Irvine said the school has a good welfare structure in place for those students who have found it difficult to manage the pressures associated with 2020.
“We have a pastoral year care with a year adviser and an assistant year adviser, being the first line of support, but we’ve also had a deputy counsellor and we’ve allocated at least four occasions we’re we’ve had ‘check ins’ in this last term just to see how people are travelling,” he said.
“Just as a ‘hey, how’s it been? How are you feeling?’ It’s about allaying some of those fears more than anything and these guys have really taken this support on quite well.”
Cooper said the positive thing about living in a smaller town like Taree and attending a smaller school is that they’ve been able to have a lot of ‘student-teacher time’ to help them through.
“They’ve [teachers] always been willing to help us out.”
And when it is all over, it will be a welcome relief for Will and Cooper – who are both good friends inside and out of the classroom.
“We’ve both got a Physics exam together on the 6th of November, which is Cooper’s last exam, and then I’ve got one the following Monday,” Will said.
“After that, it’ll be time to relax and recover after 13 years of school.”