Scholarship results were announced this week and I am extremely proud to announce our outstanding success.

In 2016 King’s students gained 28 Scholarships in total, four of these were Outstanding Scholarships, with one of these students, William Satterthwaite, gaining the position of Top Scholar in Digital Technology. 

 Since the current Scholarship examination system was introduced in 2004 no Otago school has exceeded 25 Scholarships. These results are ground breaking and unchartered territory. Impressively the Scholarships were gained by 19 students across 9 subjects displaying not only the breadth of talent among the student body but also the teaching talent and depth within the school.

Scholarships for 2016

Mitchell Anderson - Calculus

Toby Black - English

Callan Carne - Calculus, Chemistry, Physics. Callan was a Year 12 student in 2016.  An impressive feat.

Michael Cooper - Art History

Michael Freeman - Calculus, Physics

Gray Gibson - English, Drama

Joshua Hartmann - Statistics

Quinn Hawthorne - Art Design

Daniel Metcalfe - Art Design Outstanding Scholarship

Zackary Mitchell - Statistics, Calculus

Joshua Scadden - Chemistry

Ben Scott - Calculus Outstanding Scholarship, Chemistry, Physics

William Satterthwaite - Technology Outstanding Scholarship - Top Scholar in the country in Technology.

William Scharpf - Calculus.  William was a Year 10 student in 2016. He was 14 years of age when he sat this exam.

Daniel Sim - Statistics

Connor Summerton - Art Design

Sam van der Weerden - Chemistry Outstanding Scholarship, Drama, Physics

Jordan Ward - Physical Education

Paul Whiley - Art Design

The Scholarship success has been the result of a conscious and relentless focus on students reaching their academic capability. The extension programme that has facilitated this success spans across the entire five years a student is at school. It is essential that students work at a level where they are stimulated and challenged. Therefore, students who exhibit real capability in particular subjects (as early as Year 9) are accelerated. At Year 10 the top thirty students do the IGCSE (Cambridge) course which serves as an excellent extension. Many of these students will then bypass NCEA Level 1 in subjects of strength doing NCEA Level 2, while progressing to Level 3 and Scholarship as Year 12 students.

King’s has a Scholarship club for those students who are attempting three scholarships or more. The club meets regularly, both formally and informally, accessing guest speakers and gaining insights into succeeding in Scholarship. King’s is also the only school in Otago to offer Scholarship specific classes. In 2017 there are classes in Biology, Calculus, Chemistry, English, Geography, Physics and Statistics which are reserved for the students who wish to pursue Scholarship. Students are extended and flourish in this environment which is created to extend their critical thinking and analysis skills. Supplementing the programme we have run at King's, have been the city wide tutorials sponsored and supported by the University of Otago.

Marek Brewster, the Academic Dean, is the architect of this entire programme and sets each accelerated student up with an Individual Education Plan. He monitors their progress and consults regularly with parents. The introduction of an academic dean and scholarship specific classes in 2014 were calculated risks and the success of these initiatives has been borne out in the scholarship results in the last two years.

I couldn’t be more proud of the boys and staff both in terms of their achievement and the commitment required to succeed at this level.

Dan Reddiex

Rector