Singleton teenager Elliott Earnshaw has been inundated with messages from friends and family after receiving an impressive Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) score of 99.15 on Tuesday.
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Yet only 24 hours after the score was confirmed, the Sydney based academic was already working a sweat back in the Upper Hunter as a builder's labourer.
"I'm just making the most of my time after school and making a bit of money during the holidays really," he told the Singleton Argus on Wednesday afternoon.
"But certainly the past 24 hours I have received a lot of messages from those who have been very supportive over the last couple of years."
Earnshaw, who has studied at Sydney's Trinity Grammar School as a boarder since 2017, finished with a Band 6 (90-100 marks) score in all six of his subjects.
As a result he is now a proud recipient of the HSC All Rounder award while his remarkable ATAR score also ensured he would conclude his journey as the school's dux.
"I thought that if I got the good results I'd get a good ATAR and when I opened my results I thought to myself 'that's good, I'm pretty happy with that'," he explained.
"At that point I thought I'd be on for an ATAR in that vicinity so after using the ATAR calculator a few hours earlier it wasn't a huge surprise but more of a great relief when I did see the score."
Earshaw admits his success with accelerated subjects Business studies (which saw him score 93) and Mathematics Advanced 96 as a Year 11 eased his load ahead of 2019.
Nevertheless he proved just as determined in his final year by studying Economics (wit score of 96), PDHPE (93), English Advanced (94) and Mathematics Extension 1 (48/50).
"This year I was ranked first in Economics and in PDHD with a score of 93," he added.
"I was a little disappointed with that (last) one but I'm still content overall."
He and close friend Isaac Barry, who would go on to captain Singleton High School this year, celebrated the achievement with some hard labour on a building site in Muswellbrook.
The two shared the first half of their high school journey before Earnshaw ventured south three years ago.
"I'm proud of Elliott's effort," Barry declared on their drive back to Singleton this afternoon.
"He's made a lot of sacrifices such as not going to parties and everything like that and I haven't heard anyone from Singleton receive an ATAR (score) that high since I've been here either."
"It was sort of tough to leave all my mates back home and I did feel sad about that but I was quite confident that it would be a worthwhile decision," Earnshaw concluded.
