School captain Clair Stiff the top HSC achiever at Dubbo's Macquarie Anglican Grammar School

Ms Stiff achieved the school's top HSC results this year. She achieved an ATAR of 92.1 after earning band sixes in music, business studies and mathematics standard.

As well as that, Ms Stiff was also the captain of the livestock show team in 2022 and lead singer of the senior band, Salmon Pink.

"She achieved three band sixes and high eighties for all her other subjects and has achieved early entry into three different courses at three diff unis," Mr Mansour said.

"She's done an amazing job."

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As proud as Mr Mansour and the other staff at the school are of Ms Stiff's results, there's also been a real focus on everything else she and her fellow students have achieved this year.

Eighty-seven percent of Macquarie Anglican Grammar School students achieved early entry into the university course of their choice but Mr Mansour was keen to reiterate "they're all-rounders".

That was proven by the difficult the school had getting in touch with Ms Stiff to congratulate her when results were released this week.

"She's out working on her family farm as we speak," Mr Mansour said, the school year having finished earlier this week.

"She's an incredible young lady and just a great example of the incredible kids at Macquarie.

"It's about amazing kids living the whole of their lives. Today and the next few weeks shouldn't just be about results, it should be about celebrating all the kids for all the achievements."

Making the results all the more impressive this year was the fact this group of year 12 students from across the state had its education severely impacted by the COVID pandemic.

From learning at home to dealing with restrictions inside and outside of school life, there was a mountain of challenges the students faced before returning to schools earlier this year and getting back to some kind of normality.

"They've come out of that and engaged with everything. All the sport, all the cultural aspects and all of it and they've had a great year of success. And I look at HSC results across NSW and they're stronger than ever, as well," Mr Mansour said.

"It's the leadership of these younger kids. We came back from lockdown and restrictions and our senior leaders, the school captains and prefects, just dove in.

"The swimming carnival was a joyous day and the athletics carnival but also just around school. They could have come back and put their head down and focused on themselves but they didn't, they made our school a better place than it already is. That's what we're proud of."

That "resilience and hard work" was what stood out for Mr Mansour and he added he's excited to see what the graduating students go on to do.

"It doesn't get better as a principal," he said.

"You go into teaching because you want kids to achieve their very best and despite everything the world has thrown at them these kids have achieved incredible things. And they're just great kids and great people. That's the blessing and that's why I work in regional and rural schools.

"I grew up in Sydney and there's great kids in Sydney, don't get me wrong, but the kids at Macquarie and the kids more broadly in Dubbo are a fantastic bunch of kids.

"A massive number are going to uni courses they want but, as I like to say, at Macquarie we're about who they are as people, not just what jobs they do. That's the key for us.

"I would imagine in 10 or 15 years time someone like Clair will be the captain of a local RFS (Rural Fire Service) or will be head of the local SES (State Emergency Service) branch as well as doing incredibly well.

"That's the kind of kid we want to product at Macquarie."

Ms Stiff is now heading to Charles Sturt University at Orange to study physiotherapy.

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