Serena Kirby, Denmark Bulletin

Walpole teenager Lara Hunter overcame the tyranny of distance to become Denmark Senior High School’s dux ATAR student for 2024.

Lara achieved an ATAR of 97.2 with both Curtin and University of WA recognising this as a 99.95 once the country bonus was added.

The result is even more impressive considering that Lara travelled by bus to and from school for more than three hours each day during her six years of high school.

Lara also received the year 12 prize for mathematics applications, English, chemistry, human biology and geography and was awarded the Jane Kelsbie Diligence Award.

With many options available, Lara has chosen to study physiotherapy at Fremantle’s Notre Dame University and will begin this year.

Flynn Collins was another student in the school’s 90-plus club with an ATAR score of 96.5.

Flynn was also the recipient of the Principal’s Award and the ADF Future Innovators Award and will head to the University of Sydney to study commerce and law after taking a gap year.

He has chosen to move to Sydney to pursue a career in finance. Flynn said he had a long-standing interest in finance and had been trading a small portfolio of shares since he was 12 years old with the aim of ‘learning the mechanisms of share trading’.

Flynn said doing multiple practice exams helped him achieve his results and that it was something he did on a regular basis.

Lara’s study advice to this year’s ATAR students was to ‘just study the things you actually need to study and not the stuff you already know’.

Other high achieving students included Laluca Banister-Jones who also took out the award for drama.

Evan Delbene was named dux of the vocational education and training stream and Amelia Cosby was awarded dux of the general courses.

This article appeared in the Denmark Bulletin, 6 February 2025.