Paxton Hall by Otago Daily Times

NZQA Scholarship Results from 2021 exams

Congratulations to our amazing scholars for their success in the 2021 NZQA Scholarship exams. Paxton Hall won an Outstanding Scholar Award.

Collectively they won 30 Scholarships including 3 Outstanding Scholarships. 

Scholarship results were released on 10 February. Scholarship exams are the premier academic exam in New Zealand and attract the country's top scholars. Scholarships are awarded to the top 3-5% of students nationally. Once again our students have excelled and this continues a 25 year tradition of being the leading academic school in Otago / Southland. 

Additionally many of these students also won top University Scholarships at the end of 2021. The photo reflects 2021 students who won University scholarships. Because of Covid restrictions we haven't been able to hold our usual morning tea to celebrate our top achievers and take their photo. 

15 students won the scholarships in a diverse range of subjects: Biology, Photography, Chemistry, Classical Studies, History, English, Media Studies, Calculus, Physics and Statistics. 

Results below:

Paxton Hall: 5 scholarships in Biology, Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, Statistics with an Outstanding in Chemistry. 

Alexander Sun: 4 scholarships as a 15 year old and still at school this year: Physics, English, Chemistry and Biology. 

Megan Macdiarmid: 3 scholarships in Statistics, Physics and Calculus. 

Cindy Chou : 2 scholarships in Biology and English. Outstanding in Biology. 

George Hyink: 2 scholarships in Chemistry and Physics. Outstanding in Chemistry.

Laura Canton: 2 scholarships in Classical Studies and History.

Odin Jacobs: 2 scholarships in English and Physics.

Linus Molteno: 2 scholarships in Calculus and Physics.

Shima Jack as a Year 12 student won 2 scholarships in English and Biology. 

Miriam Barton won a scholarship in Photography.

Holly Bettis won a scholarship in Photography.

Alexander Cameron won a scholarship in Biology.

Benjamin Connolly won a scholarship in Media.

Elia Hayashishita won a scholarship in Calculus.

Darcy Monteath as a Year 12 student won a scholarship in English.

Congratulations to all of our students, teachers and whanau on these tremendous results. 

Subject spread: 

Biology 5 including 1 Outstanding

Calculus 4

Chemistry 3 including 2 Outstanding

Classical Studies 1

English 5

History 1

Media Studies 1

Photography 2

Physics 6

Statistics 2


See Otago Daily Times article by Wyatt Ryder  below:

Pupils' Scholarly Efforts Rewarded

Young minds of Dunedin have seen success in their studies as scholarships are awarded across the country.

More than 2000 scholarships have been awarded to pupils across the country on the basis of last year’s exams, Dunedin pupils earning a total of 162.

Former Kavanagh College pupil Tobias Devereux was the most acclaimed of them as the winner of a premier award.

Only 12 pupils nationally received the award.

He said seeing recognition for his efforts "felt fantastic".

He was also the top subject scholarship winner for physics.

However, math was his true passion and he would be studying it at the University of Otago this year along with computer science, he said.

The announcement came as a surprise to him, but he could appreciate that he did work hard for it.

Logan Park High School co-principal Kristan Mouat said its pupils earned 30 scholarships, three of which were outstanding scholarships.

One of those pupils was Paxton Hall (18), who was the only person to received an outstanding scholar award in Dunedin.

Fifty-three outstanding scholar awards given out nationally.

Paxton said he still was not quite sure if it was a fluke.

He had studied at least an hour a day since the start of last year, but it still did not seem real.

"I am just starting to realise how many hours I spent preparing."

He would study biochemistry, philosophy and mathematics at the University of Otago this year.

King’s High School rector Nick McIvor said its pupils were awarded 34 scholarships.

The school held an outdoor assembly yesterday to honour their achievements.

The school had to work within Covid restrictions to hold the assembly, but it was important the pupils and their families were able to celebrate with the rest of the school, he said.

The pupils had won scholarships in a wide array of subjects and he was "immensely proud" of them.

Otago scholarships

Clutha District 2
Dunedin City 162
Queenstown Lakes 20
Gore District 0
Invercargill City 13
Southland District 0