Dungog High student Ellie Waight tops state

The Vacy teenager was in Sydney on Monday to receive the award for equal first in Retail Services Examination from the NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. Cheering her on were proud parents Nicholas and Tanya.

Ellie, who was dux of Vacy Public School, studied modern history, business studies, PDHPE, advanced English and mathematics along with retail services in the Higher School Certificate.

She has already gained early entry to study a Bachelor of Business, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Newcastle.

"I decided to defer to take a gap year," she said.

"I'll be working at (Maitland real estate agency) River Realty, mostly figuring out what I want to do, what I want to study," she said.

Ellie was excited to get the phone call about the award last week when she was at the airport returning from a family holiday.

Dungog High School principal Janene McIntosh, who was emotional when speaking about Ellie's achievement, said it was "absolutely huge for the school".

"It's amazing, we are all buzzing," she said.

"The HSC is what we are all about and this school has absolutely risen to deliver results.

"This level of result is exactly what we are after for this school and for this community.

"We've made a massive upward trend in the last few years and that's what we are maintaining.

"We are expecting great results again this year."