Teen locked out of Australia by Covid is awarded dux at Sydney school

An 18-year-old student who was trapped in during Covid, more than 7,000km from her school, has been awarded dux of her class.

Colleen Gao was holidaying in Shanghai at her grandmother’s apartment when countries around the world locked their borders at the start of Covid pandemic.

Ms Gao was enrolled as an international student at inner-west public school Burwood Girls High School and was determined the distance would not affect her studies.

From February 2020, she woke up at 5.30am every school day to attend her classes in real time.

She said at first she was ‘confused and stressed’ by her situation.

‘The science teachers zoomed me on an iPad so that I could see the class. My other teachers provided the work on Google classroom and I asked my classmates about the assigned work,’ she told the

‘From all the help, support and the online college classes for high schoolers lessons offered by my school, I wanted to keep my marks goods to show them that it works.’ 

What was meant to be a temporary fix quickly became Ms Gao’s norm with the young student keeping up her vigorous routine for two years.

During her time studying in Sydney from Shanghai, Ms Gao completed two maths HSC tests as a Year 11 student.

She was able to take them from an Australian government office in China alongside another HSC student. 

She said one of the hardest parts during her extended lockdown, apart from poor internet connection, was the distance from her Australian friends. 

‘Being away from people was the most challenging for me. I’m quite an introvert so I didn’t reach out to them. We’d only talk if we had some work to do,’ Colleen said.

In the coming weeks Ms Gao will finish her HSC tests for English as another language, biology and chemistry.

Ms Gao earned dux of Burwood Girls High School, based on her existing grades, proving her determination and dedication to learning. 

She said she hopes to study sport science or medicine at university next year. 

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