By Alex Crowe
When Riley and Mitchell Parks were photographed for The Age alongside three sets of twins on their first day of school at Carranballac College in January 2014 a record heatwave had swept over the state, with fires burning out of control in the state’s north-west.
As the state once again swelters and fires rage, again in the Grampians and elsewhere in Victoria’s north-west, this masthead caught up with the twins – now headed into year 11 – to find out what has changed.
Riley and Mitchell, 16, from Point Cook, moved from the public school just down the road from their house to one of Victoria’s highly competitive selective entry schools in year nine.
The twins were among 300 students who crowded into a warehouse at the Melbourne Showgrounds to sit the entrance exam and were accepted into Suzanne Cory High School in Werribee.
“I didn’t go into it with high expectations – it was more about testing how I’d go,” Riley said.
In prep, recess time was spent running around playing tag together. Today, the boys are on the same cricket team and compete in athletics. “We’re quite competitive, always trying to beat each other. I think it helps having someone to push you along,” Mitchell said.
Who has the edge? “Of course, I’m going to say myself,” said Riley.
The twins were among about 76,500 children starting their school journey in 2014, about 77,000 four and five-year-olds started this year – more than two-thirds of them in a government school.
Riley is thinking about a career in physiotherapy or engineering. He’s enrolled in VCE specialist maths, maths methods, chemistry, English and physical education.
“It’s big step up, but I’m feeling OK about it,” he said.
Jackson and Elliott Foster, from Tarneit, are enrolled at The Grange P-12 College in Hoppers Crossing. They’re both pursuing trades and are enrolled in the two-year VCE Vocational Major.
Lucy and Marley Pio, Riley and Mitchell Parks, Jackson and Elliott Foster. Credit: Simon Schluter
Like the Parks boys, the Foster twins are close, but sibling rivalry still has a way of surfacing on the sports field and in the classroom.
“We do a lot of things together,” Jackson said.
“I think my mentality is a lot better than his because he’s lazy and I’m a lot more determined,” joked Elliott.
The percentage of students attending public schools over independent and Catholic schools in Victoria was 63 per cent when the twins started in 2014.
That had fallen to 62 per cent in 2023 and enrolment data for 2024 is expected to reflect a further fall.
Marley and Lucy Pio, 15, were among about 660,000 enrolled in a government school when they started at Point Cook Senior Secondary College this year, having moved from Carranballac to Brookside P-9 College and Lakeview Senior College.
The twins live in Point Cook with three of their five other siblings, the eldest two having moved out already.
Marley will complete VCE over the next two years. Lucy has enrolled in the vocational education and training stream in the hope of becoming a tattoo artist. Lucy says Marley is the smart one while she’s the one more likely to get in trouble. “She does the work and I copy it, sadly. I do try though!” she said.
Both friends and sisters, Marley said they’ve always had one another’s backs on the first day at a new school. “We have a very close relationship. She’s been there for me through everything,” Marley said.
She said the main difference between them is that Lucy is a “bit of a tomboy. … In general, we think the same but we just don’t have the same hobbies or interest”.
Whenever there was “drama” at school, Lucy is the person she goes to to talk about it, says Marley: “She’ll always be on my side.”
The Age will check in with the twins throughout their schooling journey to see how they get on in their senior years.
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