Aaliyah O’Connell named one of Bunbury’s top ATAR performers

With a score of 99.10, Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School’s Aaliyah O’Connell has received one of the highest ATAR scores in the region.

Aaliyah described the moment she checked her score as a culmination of a lot of work.

“It feels amazing especially because I didn’t expect a 99, the feeling of opening my laptop and seeing the number was amazing just knowing all the hard work paid off in the end,” she said.

“It was definitely a challenging two years, having to keep up with all the content or just continuously going and it was obviously stressful at points, but I’m just really proud I’ve made it out in the end and achieved a really good ATAR.”

Aaliyah said telling her parents brought out all the emotions.

“It was a shock, I think I just went completely frozen, I just didn’t expect it and then I went to go tell my parents.

“Then I just started crying because I just didn’t expect it at all.

“They were very, very happy because I remember the night before I was talking to them and I was like ‘guys, I just really hope I get above 95,’ and then when they saw 99 they said ‘Aaliyah, I think you did alright’.”

Aaliyah studied five ATAR subjects — human biology, maths methods, chemistry, French and English literature.

She now hopes to study medicine at UWA and plans to move up to Perth to one of the residencies attached to the university.

Her advice to those students about to start their ATAR experience was to follow your passions.

“Just choose the subjects you love, I think is really important ... because that’s what you’ll probably do the best at,” she said.

“Obviously, it’s very important to have a good balance between your down time and studying because overall mental wellbeing is so important during two years of ATAR.”

Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School had an impressive showing this year, according to head of school Matthew O’Brien.

He said more than 40 per cent of ATAR students at the school got a score of above 90, a significant increase from previous years.

“It’s amazing to see the fruits of their hard labour eventuate in such a fantastic result for their future because it’s their work and it’s their future,” he said.

“This cohort were hugely impacted during the COVID years and then what they’ve done for us in our context, in our school, is they have really come together and worked together.

“They’ve lifted each other and inspired each other and worked with each other and then they’ve fulfilled what they set out to achieve.”

Other top scorers from the South West who gave permission to be named:

Sage Mearns, Georgiana Molloy Anglican School.

Matilda Coulson, Bunbury Cathedral Grammer School.

Kyden Brown, Cape Naturaliste College.

Connor Goodlad, Bunbury Senior High School.

Ella Mulvey, Margaret River Senior High School.

Kai-Anna Prendergast, Margaret River Senior High School.

Fletcher Bucat, Margaret River Senior High School.

Hannah Barbetti, Bunbury Senior High School.

Emily Karafilis, Manjimup Senior High School.

Layne Wilks, Bunbury Catholic College.