Ravenswood HSC student from the Class of 2021 Rachel Halliday-Shand, is one of just 14 girls in NSW to achieve a perfect 99.95 ATAR. She also topped the state in English Advanced.
Surprised by her results, Rachel says she spent a long time doing practice papers and put more effort into English Advanced than any other subject as English is her passion. ‘I am sure my enthusiasm for the texts made a big difference,’ she said. ‘I also did a lot of practice papers and discussed the texts with friends, which enabled me to question my point of view and refine my perspectives.’
Rachel particularly loved the chance to study An Artist of the Floating World by her favourite author Kazuo Ishiguro. She said the most surprising and challenging aspect of the English Advanced exam was a compulsory question on the poetry of John Dunne. ‘The course included eight poems by Dunne but the question focused on just one. Luckily it was one that I had studied in detail,’ she said.
While at School, Rachel was a Community and Wellbeing Prefect and contributed many hours to charities such as Days for Girls and campaigns like Reconciliation Week. She will study Arts Law at Sydney University and has two very distinct thoughts on her future career: ‘I would like to either work with Indigenous youth to address the issue of disproportionately high incarceration rates or in European diplomacy, focusing on France, as I also loved studying French,’ Rachel said.
She has been awarded a University of Sydney Chancellor’s Award valued at $10,000 a year for the duration of her undergraduate degree.
Australia’s top principal
Ravenswood Class of 2023 Academic Results
