The first graduating class from Adamstown’s Trinity Catholic College celebrated the milestone they pioneered at the school’s first Year 12 formal on Wednesday night.
The class of 32 students were surrounded by friends – classmates and those students who departed to complete their studies as the school’s path had traditionally provided – as well as their families and teachers at the Merewether Surfhouse on Wednesday evening.
Delaney Tallon was looking forward to starting her university studies in nursing in the Hunter. She said the decision to stay at Trinity, with the teachers she had learned from and the familiar surroundings, was an easy one to make when the college announced it would expand to include years 11 and 12 in 2022.
“The teachers know me here,” she said of the decision to finish her HSC at Trinity College, which was renamed from St Pius X in 2023.
“I already had an idea of what I wanted to do and choosing subjects wasn’t hard. All the teachers I knew were lovely.”
Isabel Hingston said the small cohort meant she and her classmates were able to benefit from closer tuition – a boon for HSC preparations – and the few dozen students quickly bonded.
She was excited to start her studies in aerospace engineering at the University of Newcastle in the new year, and said she had high hopes for the future graduating classes coming up through the ranks below her.
David Pitfield, a PE teacher at Trinity College and the father of graduate Mackenzie Pitfield, said many students chose to continue in the traditional path and transfer to other schools in the region to complete their studies, including many of Makenzie’s friends, but she had not looked back.
“She’s flown,” he said, and Mackenzie mingled with friends from her classes and those who departed but who turned out to celebrate and support the graduates this week.
“It wasn’t a big change,” he said of the transition. “Sometimes that change can be huge for kids, but she didn’t have to worry about that.”
Mackenzie doubled the pioneering track in senior school, not only studying among the college’s first Year 12 cohort, but also taking the first iteration of a variant to the physical education curriculum focused on health and movement science.
“It was PE, but a lot more science-based,” she said. “It was all human systems and biomechanics.”
“It was exciting to take the test. We didn’t know what to expect and it was pretty cool to be the first students to do that.”
Her studies helped her secure early entry to study nutrition and dietetics in the region in the new year.
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This article has been taken from The Newcastle Herald.
