At a time when many should have been kicking up their heels in Fiji or on the Gold Coast and others simply chilling after 13 years of hard work and/or ticking boxes, 3713 HSC students across Newcastle and Lake Macquarie will finally sit their first HSC exam tomorrow.
COVID has meant the Class of 2021’s senior school years have been full of adaptation and disappointment. They have experienced two lengthy periods of home schooling, as well as the cancellation or postponement of many rites of passage along the way, such as excursions, ski trips, camps, award ceremonies, graduations, formals and 18th birthday parties.
The Higher School Certificate exams, though, were always going to proceed, albeit delayed, modified and masked.
Starting with English on Tuesday morning, November 9, HSC written exams will run till December 3, three weeks later than originally planned. Strict COVID-safe protocols will be in place, including students and supervising staff wearing masks.
Merewether High School student Larissa Mullard has found 2021 “incredibly challenging”.
“The extension of the HSC has been both relieving and disheartening,” she said on the eve of her final exams.
“Whilst I am grateful for the extra time, it makes me sad to think about the fact that not even having begun my first exam, I should be finished and enjoying what I was told would be ‘the best few months of my life’.
“After the HSC, I am excited to celebrate with my friends and spend time winding down.”
Larissa, who plans to study Occupational Therapy at the University of Newcastle next year, lamented the lack of closure for Year 12 students after 13 years at school.
“I never imagined that a random Thursday in August would be my last day of school forever,” she said.
“All throughout high school I had looked up to the privileges of the graduating Year 12, knowing that one day that would be me, and although our school has made the best of a bad situation, those last few months of high school with your friends can never be replicated.”
Larissa is not alone.
Lambton High School student Laura Davies said “at this point so close to the HSC I’m really just excited to move beyond it all and leave the stress behind, but part of me is also sad to finish school so abruptly after being back and forth between school and at-home learning”.
Laura said the hardest part about doing the HSC amid a pandemic “has definitely been the uncertainty and isolation of it all”.
“The HSC is a time of immense pressure and stress and to do it all at home alone has been testing,” she said.
“Although teacher support has been amazing, I felt the determination to keep going was solely on me.”
Laura said she found it difficult to know if she’d had a productive day “compared to if I had been at school with set tasks and other students to talk to”.
Helping Laura through has been a recent offer of a geology cadetship, which will involve part-time work and part-time study in Earth Science and Geology at the universities of Newcastle and Wollongong.
She said the offer “definitely came at the best time and pushed me to keep studying when I was so drained and over it all”.
“Earth Science has always been my favourite subject so this opportunity still feels crazy to me.”
Merewether High School captain Lili Sabine is relieved there’s an end in sight.
“Honestly, it feels so unreal, I don’t think that it’s going to hit me completely until I am at my first exam about to go in,” she said.
“I cannot believe it is the culmination of 13 years of schooling.
“It almost feels insincere when people call it that; it feels only like the culmination of two hard years, impacted by COVID, struggling to keep up and finish a course.
“It’s almost lost its meaning since it’s taken so long. I’ve definitely lost that drive and pressure that I had previously been feeling. Now I’m just tired and can’t wait for it to be over – good or bad.”
Lili, whose ultimate career goal is to become a doctor, said a delay in university offers meant that it was difficult to make plans for next year.
“Leaving this so late gives students only weeks to make decisions and even find accommodation and move to follow their desired path,” she said.
“I have a friend who is already moving to Melbourne in early January before she even finds out if she gets into her desired course at the University of Melbourne. This uncertainty adds another level of anxiety to an already stressful time.”
She said missing weeks of face-to-face learning through Year 11 and 12 had “definitely made for a harder studying period” and the social and mental challenges during this time had been significant.
“Missing such key coming-of-age events is extremely tough,” she said.
“I know many feel as though we are having our senior year with all the academic hardships and none of the special rites of passage.
“Many missed 18th birthdays (mine involved being stuck at home with only my parents), missed school events, missed graduation, missed the last day of school.
“Thankfully we are having a delayed graduation that hopefully our parents will be able to come to and a school formal – definitely a silver lining on an otherwise grey cloud.”
COVID-safe measures throughout the 3½-week exam period include students and staff having to wear a face mask in the exam room and while waiting to enter the exam room, unless they have a medical exemption.
Exam rooms will be cleaned each day, and hygiene essentials, including hand sanitiser and alcohol wipes, will be supplied in each exam room.
There have been around 3500 COVID cases in the Hunter since August 5. And since face-to-face learning resumed in NSW schools in October, more than 40 Hunter schools have already had to temporarily close for cleaning and contact tracing after COVID cases were identified.
With this in mind, each school will have an alternative HSC exam site as a back-up, and students will be notified of any venue changes if necessary.
In a few weeks, the Year 12 of 2021 will breathe a collective sigh of relief after enduring, with maturity and resilience, an unprecedented series of unfortunate events.
“It certainly has been a draining time for all but I’m proud of myself and everyone that we were able to keep going and get something out of this strange experience,” Laura said.
Gina Cranson