Grahamstown's private schools achieved excellent results in the 2012 IEB matric exams, with most of their top achievers hailing from the Eastern Cape.
Grahamstown's private schools achieved excellent results in the 2012 IEB matric exams, with most of their top achievers hailing from the Eastern Cape.
With three pupils on the IEB’s Outstanding Achievement list and one on the Commendable Achievement list, the results from brother and sister schools, St Andrew’s College and DSG, reflect new heights for the historic Eastern Cape schools.
Three local pupils, Justine Lowe, Eden-Eve Repapis and Michael-Jon Rosslee, from Grahamstown, were all placed on the IEB’s Outstanding Achievement list for being ranked within the top 5% of learners in six or more subjects. Only 78 candidates from the 8 957 IEB candidates who wrote the exam throughout the country made this list. These three pupils also all achieved nine distinctions.
Both schools had a 100% pass rate. At the Diocesan School for Girls, 97% of the candidates gained matric with entry to bachelor degree studies and at St Andrew’s College 89%. The IEB average for bachelor degree passes is 83.60%.
Between the two schools, the 146 candidates attained a remarkable 279 subject distinctions.
At Kingswood College, Satchen Gush from Grahamstown, and James Sheard from Graaff-Reinet, each earned seven distinctions.
Gush achieved an outstanding 95% for mathematics while among Sheard's strong results was 92% for geography. Also from Grahamstown, with six distinctions, is Kingswood's Megan Dixon who scored 90% for her mathematics paper, and 93% for physical science. Shatani Libinda, from Botswana, a boarder at Kingswood, also achieved six distinctions.
Other Eastern Cape pupils from Kingswood who did well were Ross Murray, from East London, with four distinctions – among them 93% for mathematics – and Joshua Smuts, from Grahamstown, with four distinctions.
Satchen Gush is the son of Richard and Cathy Gush of Sidbury. He recently achieved honours for academics, music and drama at Kingswood, and has consistently been a top academic in his grade. Satchen plans to study mathematics at Stellenbosch next year.
James Sheard hails from a farm at New Bethesda near Graaff-Reinet and is the son of Judy and Howard Sheard. With seven distinctions and 88% for accounting, James plans to study accounting at Stellenbosch University next year.
Megan Dixon, daughter of Sarah Green and Gavin Dixon, both of Grahamstown, plans to study veterinary science in 2013.
Kingswood achieved a 100% pass rate for 2012 and a 90% bachelor's degree entry level pass rate,
DSG's Emma Puggia, from Port Elizabeth, was placed on the IEB’s Commendable Achievement list for achieving results in the top 5% of five subjects. She achieved eight distinctions, as did St Andrews's Christopher de Blocq van Scheltinga, from Cape Town.
DSG and St Andrew's pupils who achieved seven distinctions were Gregory Slack, from Cape Town, James de Beer from Johannesburg and Alice Haddon, from Port Elizabeth. Caitlin Harrison, Lila Kelly and Sarah Roodt, from Grahamstown, Katie Mclean from Kenya, James Price from Port Elizabeth and Johnathon Dempster from Johannesburg all achieved six distinctions.
DSG and St Andrew's pupils who achieved five distinctions were Grahamstown boy Aaron Graham, John Joseph Muringathuparambil, from King William's Town, Michael Houghton from Port Alfred and Natasha Parker from Zambia. Some of these subject distinctions include Mathematics Paper 3.
PLEASED PRINCIPALS
Shelley Frayne, DSG
"DSG is very pleased with the performance of the 2012 matric class. Most gratifying to note is that hard work and consistency have been justly rewarded. Congratulations to the girls and to their teachers."
Paul Edey, St Andrew's
“We salute the achievements of the 2012 matric group in the IEB National Senior Certificate examinations. We are very proud of these results which are testimony to the hard work and dedication of the boys and staff. Good luck to the matrics of 2012 as they embark on the next exciting phase of their lives.”
Jon Trafford, Kingswood
"While we're obviously very proud of our top achievers, the overall performance of our matric class has been excellent. I'm particularly proud of the increased number of distinctions in mathematics over last year's results. Praise must go to our staff for their preparation of this year's matrics, but also to the pupils who worked so hard."
