This is an annual award, established by the Board of Trustees, to acknowledge the outstanding contribution to Burnside High School of the late Dr Peter Bryant, in his role as the chairperson of the Board.

This year’s Dux recipient, Angelina Narayan attended Burnside Primary School and Westburn, where she was involved in Lit Quiz, drums, keyboard and writing for the school newspaper. Even at this young age, creativity, focus and determination were all qualities noted by teachers. 

Early on at Burnside High School Angelina was identified as someone who excelled academically across the board with teachers describing her as an independent and highly competent student and someone who was “kind and cheerful”.

While academic pursuits have been a key focus for Angelina she also turned her hand to a range of extra curricular offerings including pistol shooting, robotics and dance.

Throughout her time at this school she has received numerous academic awards, most recently the cups for first place in Year 12 in English, Spanish, Physics and Chemistry.

 This year this she has stepped up to a number of extra curricular activities including Magna Voce, Environment Group and Student Support Prefect as well as helping run a number of school social initiatives. In July this year, this student received the Spac Pac Supreme Award for Academic Achievement. 

She has also developed their creative side, writing poetry and this year was runner up in the National Schools’ Poetry Award and has recently had the pleasure to attend a poetry writers workshop in Wellington.

She is a truly multi-talented individual with an extremely high level of achievement across a number of subjects. 

Currently Angelina has accepted a place at Otago University with a substantial scholarship but is exploring her options, including overseas universities.

Angelina's motivation is drawn from, and I quote: “just wanting to be proud of myself and know that I’ve done the best that I could”.  We are proud of her and celebrate her successes as the top academic student in the school. 

Proxime Accessit

Our Proxime Accessit for 2021 is Ai Yamada. Ai is an exceptional student who is excelling in all of their subjects this year, and has been described by teachers as “outstanding and highly diligent”.

She combines a prodigious intelligence with a focused and determined work ethic. Ai has already attained sufficient credits at Excellence level for an overall Excellence endorsement this year, with external examinations still to complete. She loves an academic challenge and has taken part in a number of competitions throughout secondary school, most recently the NZ Engineering Science Competition 2021, the NZ Physics and Mathematics Competition 2021, and the National Secondary Schools’ Case Competition 2021.

In addition to these numerous academic successes, she has been very involved in sports and extra-curricular activities at school. Ai has been consistent in her generous contribution to a wide range of school pursuits.

She has, in 2021, navigated a formidable workload and still come out the other side as close to the top as you can get. She is interested in studying Physics, Nuclear Science or Engineering, with a view to future involvement in the energy sector.