Our stars of the ATAR

By Emma Sun
Some 13 students at Beaconhills College received higher than a 95 Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR), with five from the Pakenham campus and eight from the Berwick campus.
The dux for Berwick was Damien Devnarain, who scored 99.15. He said he would like to study commerce at Melbourne University, double majoring in accounting and management, before doing postgraduate law.
“It took a lot of work and dedication to get to this stage, but I look forward to university and am glad to have finished VCE.”
Pakenham’s dux was school captain Lachlan Newham, who achieved a 98.35. He said he would like to study advertising at RMIT.
“I originally wanted to do med, but realised my passion was in advertising and arts so I decided to do that,” he said.
“One of my parents wasn’t very happy at first because you don’t need an ATAR score to get into advertising but now they’re both very supportive.”
Lachlan, who had been at Beaconhills since Prep, said he loved his time at school and hoped to go back to tutor students.
School principal Tony Sheumack it had been a great year for the school with many successes.
“I am very proud of our students’ efforts. Overall, these results are a testament to the dedication and hard work of the talented class of 2011 and the commitment of professionalism of our staff, who have focused on the goal of academic excellence.”
The other top-scorers include: Katherin Bell, 98.35, Santini Subramaniam, 98, Maggie Fortune, 97, Chelsea Thompson, 96.5, Levineshumar Balakrishnan, 96.3, Mitchell Nicholas, 96.2, Stephanie Brien, 96.05, Adhiraj Rana, 96.05, Archit Vora, 96, Rebecca Swayn, 95.85 and Luke McPhail, 95.4.