Year 12 students who completed their HSC at Coonabarabran High School have shown extraordinary resilience in throughout 2021.

With Higher School Certificate (HSC) exams largely complete, this year’s batch of school leavers have had to contend with COVID-19, mouse plagues and, at times, torrential weather in the background, all while trying to remain focused on their studies.

On Monday afternoon, 29 November, a handful of students walked out of their last exam - design and technology.

Lawrence Little, who has plans to attend the University of Sydney to study music education, said he was hit with a sense of relief when he completed his final exam.

“COVID made things a lot harder for everyone,” he said.

“It wasn’t easy doing the HSC. It was strange. Even though we got through that mess of a year it’s a relief knowing we did it and we got through.”

Hoping to gain automotive apprenticeship, Blake Murnane said it was bitter sweet to finally be finishing school, saying he would miss the social aspect.

“I’m going to miss seeing everyone and having that bond with some of the teachers,” Blake said.

“What I’m not going to miss is the amount of assessment tasks we had to do.”

Benton Ernest said he felt much the same, but was trying to look at it from another perspective.

“While I’m going to miss seeing everyone, now I’m just looking forward to all the freedom we have,” he said.

“I’m going to have a few months off to myself and work to save a bit of money.

“But yeah, walking out of that final exam was an absolute immense relief.”

Benton is hoping to find a career in carpentry.

School captain, Claudia Eastburn said her plan was to attend university in Sydney or Adelaide to study occupational therapy.

In the meantime, she will be undertaking a unique post-HSC job in the shearing sheds, helping her dad out.

Claudia said she would miss her school captain rolel, but wouldn’t miss the impact of COVID-19 on her final years.

“COVID really dragged out our last year,” she said.

“It was hard at times not to lose motivation and the lockdowns made everything so much more difficult.”

The outgoing school captain offered a word of advice to those that will be following in their footsteps next year.

“Stay on top of your work, do summaries every now and then - it was those little mind maps that helped me through,” Claudia said.