Rangitoto College is proud to top the country again, with our students gaining unprecedented passes in the 2020 NZQA Scholarship exams. These exams are the most demanding academic assessments in the country, designed to be one step above the Level 3 NCEA curriculum, with a pass rate of only 3% and only 0.3% of students gaining an Outstanding level grade.

Gaining 215 Scholarships overall, with 31 at Outstanding, our 2020 cohort has built on the success of previous years. These successes were celebrated during our first week of Term 1, at our annual Scholarship Breakfast.

Two of our students, Friederike Voit and Cameron Senior, gained Premier Awards, receiving $30,000 over three tertiary years of study, with only 12 awarded across the country. Friederike gained eight passes, four Outstanding. She received the Top in Subject Award for Art History for the second year running, for which she will receive $6,000 for her next three years of study. Her other passes were in History, Classics, Religious Studies, English, Statistics, Biology, and Health and Physical Education. In total, Friederike has gained an astonishing 13 Scholarships while at the college: four as a Year 12, one as a Year 11. Cameron, a Year 12 student, gained six passes, with three Outstanding, in Art History, History, Biology, English, Health and Physical Education, and Calculus, a particularly impressive achievement considering he sat the exams a year early.

Rangitoto College’s 215 Scholarships were gained by students across all three senior year levels. Fourteen Year 11 students gained 16 Scholarships – Ashley Huddart and Jasmine Jared gained two each. Thirty-two Year 12 students gained 56 Scholarships and 69 Year 13 students gained 143 Scholarships. Impressively, the following students all gained four or more Scholarships: Carol Huang, Nancy Wu, Kelly Cha, Daniel Gailer, Bella Lane, Sisya Jiang, Ezekiel Thornton, and Angel Li.

As well as our two Premier Awards, Rangitoto College students achieved multiple other successes. Carol Huang, Angel Li, Ethan Lu, and Nancy Wu gained Outstanding Scholar Awards, an accolade gained by only 60 students in the nation. Genevieve Kuan gained a Top in Subject Award in Health and Physical Education, with an incredible score of 24 out of 24, and Year 11 student, Alex Kang, sat the Scholarship exams two years early and gained an Outstanding in Calculus with 36 out of 40.

Rangitoto College congratulates all our winners on their phenomenal success. The standard of students taking Scholarship level exams at the school is high and we acknowledge all the immense effort all our students put in during a trying year.

Rangitoto College sweeps New Zealand Secondary School Beach Volleyball Championships

Rangitoto College set new records at this year’s New Zealand Secondary School Beach Volleyball Championships, held in Mount Maunganui over Waitangi Weekend. Our teams received their best haul of awards ever, demonstrating both sportsmanship and ability, with a third of the pairs medalling over the weekend.

These incredible results included national titles in the Year 11 Girls Division for Kiana Stevens and Kaia Buckley, who won gold. Silver and Bronze medals were also awarded to our other Year 11 pairs of Ryan Jefferson and Juan Carlos Quintero in the Boys Division, and Sienna Rugg and Jenny McMillian in the Girls Division. The Senior Boys pairs also had great results with Ethan Skelton and Nico Lietz gaining Bronze in the Senior Boys Division, and our Year 12 pair, Flynn Little and Jermaine Kightley winning Gold in Division Two.

Rangitoto College is extremely proud of our Beach Volleyball players. Thank you to the staff and coaches who supported our students, as well as the many parents who travelled to support their whānau.

Rangitoto’s IB students among top achievers in the world

Rangitoto College’s International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme students performed remarkably well in 2020, with two of our highest achieving students gaining Top Scholar Awards. Guy Wearn earned 43 points and Grace Blakey earned 41 points—this puts Guy in the top 3% of the world and Grace in the top 7%.

The IB Diploma programme is an academically-challenging programme of education that strives to prepare students for the modern world. The diploma runs over two years and offers a range of subjects. Internationally recognised, it requires students to succeed in a number of areas, through the strands of Theory of Knowledge, Community, Action, Service, and Extended Essay.

Rangitoto students gained an average score of 32, above the world average of 29.90. Immense thanks goes to our team of specialist IB teachers, and IB coordinator Catherine Brandt. Catherine joined us in 2020 from GEMS Wellington Academy - Silicon Oasis in Dubai, and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the college.

Rangitoto College is proud of the high standard of our IB programme and looks forward to seeing the success of the 2021 cohort later this year.