The Accelerate Programme offers academically able and well-rounded students the opportunity to extend themselves over four years. This year, 46 Year 13 Accelerate are well into their chosen papers ranging from the Sciences to Philosophy. These papers are offered to PNBHS by Waikato, Canterbury, Massey and Victoria Universities. Some are taught formally within the school timetable structure, while others are delivered directly by the universities through distance learning technologies. This year, we also have 10 very talented Year 12 Accelerate students enrolled for the Waikato English Literature paper.

Once selected as an accelerate student, at the end of Year 9, a challenging journey lies ahead with university papers and Scholarship examinations being the final goal in Year 13. The benefit of this programme is having the opportunity to delve into and experience tertiary studies within a relatively risk-free environment and be blessed by a familiar and safe support structure. Having four universities make their papers available to us is a huge opportunity for students to familiarise themselves with these institutions and make a more informed post school choice as to where they enrol for their professional studies. As an aside, when universities papers taken at PNBHS cross credit into later tertiary programmes, considerable time and expense is saved.

The 2021 cohort has bolted from the starting blocks. Most of them are currently sitting first round assessments and we await with eager anticipation for those results. If the Chemistry results are anything to go by, where all students scored over 80% and two of them 100%, then we are in for a bumper year.

The Canterbury University Linear Algebra test results have been confirmed and, as with Chemistry, a very high standard of performance has been set by our students. The grades range from 70% - 100%, with three candidates scoring 100% and four 99.6%. Clearly, the challenge for DUX of the school is going to be a vigorous contest.

Mr K Benn

Accelerate Programme Coordinator.