King’s tops Otago & Southland for NQZA Scholarships, #3 in South Island, and in Top 20 nationally

Scholarship Assembly, introduction by Academic Dean, Cameron McPhail

"In the 2024 Scholarship exams, King’s students gained 50 Scholarships across 16 subjects. A Scholarship pass places students in the top 3% in New Zealand in a subject. Three of our passes were awarded at Outstanding level, which places those students in the top 0.3%. Of our 25 Scholarship winners, seven were Year 12 students who amassed a total of 17 Scholarships between them, and four were Year 11 students, each attaining a single Scholarship. King’s High School achieved more Scholarship passes than any other boys’ school in the South Island and ranked as the sixth best-performing boys’ schools nationally. These are all impressive stats, but, in my opinion, what truly matters, much more than these stats, is how and why we got here.

What matters is that here at King’s, we are committed to personal excellence. Personal excellence is not about numbers or rankings—it’s about consistently striving to be the best version of yourself. It’s about resilience, learning from setbacks, and pushing beyond your perceived limits. What personal excellence looks like is different for every King’s student, but for these twenty-five young men, they have attained it through NZQA Scholarship, the highest academic award in New Zealand secondary school education.

What matters is that as a school we believe in exceeding expectations. We are a state school. A boys’ school. In South Dunedin. We are a community made up of students from all walks of life, diverse backgrounds, diverse cultures, diverse beliefs. But we are united by King’s. United by an ethos of hard work, integrity of character, and drive to be the best that we can be, all of which these Scholarship winners exemplify.

What matters is that we are striving to provide an all-round education that is second to none. I’m not going to stand here and thank our staff for doing their jobs, doing what they’re paid to do. But I will thank you all for what you actually do, which is so much more than the job description. Thank you for the tutorials run every week from Term 1 to Term 4, the homework groups every Wednesday, the Breakfast Club every interval, the hours of extra-curricular commitments throughout the year, the values that you role model, the belief that you have in our students, the daily chats you have with them that make a world of difference.

All of this is what matters. All of this is what makes King’s not just any school, but a great school.

To the many of you in the audience thinking about entering Scholarship in the future, do not shy away from the challenge. One of my favourite quotes goes like this: “There’s no passion to be found in playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you’re capable of living.” These Scholarship winners, and all those that have come before them, are proof of what you can achieve if you have the courage to go big, if you refuse to settle."

NZQA Scholarship Winners 2024,

Paddy Tyrrell - Calculus, Chemistry*, Physics, Statistics* - NZQA Outstanding Scholar Award

Connor Gray - English, Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, Statistics

Jayden Burgess (Year 12) - Calculus*, Chemistry, Physics, Statistics - NZQA Outstanding Scholar Award

Lukas Ghidella (Year 12) - Classical Studies, English, Geography

Nic Schollum (Year 12) - Calculus, Chemistry, Physics

Seva Solomatenko (Year 12) - Calculus, Chemistry, Physics

Hugh Jack - Biology, English, Statistics

Ted Menzies - Biology, Geography, Painting

Samuel Mitchell - Biology, English, Geography

Benjamin Paton (Year 12) - Classical Studies, Geography

Jack Aubin - Biology, English

Connor Knights - Agricultural and Horticultural Science, History

Aidan Blakie (Year 11) - Calculus

Vaibhav Jayan (Year 11) - Geography

Zane Rakete-Gray (Year 11) - Te Reo Māori

Raymond Yang (Year 11) - Calculus

Luke Hammond (Year 12) - Calculus

Olly Morris (Year 12) - Digital Technology

Carter Dermody - English

Joshua Gray - Agricultural and Horticultural Science

Emmanuel Highsted - Photography

Harvey Rawlings - Drama

Misha Shipin - English

Shane Sreedhar - Painting

Riley Thompson - Religious Studies

(Note: Students without an allocated class year were Years 12 or 13 in 2024, and have left King's)