All the 2013 top matriculants from Kingswood College are from the Eastern Cape, with most of the top achievers being home-grown Grahamstonians.
All the 2013 top matriculants from Kingswood College are from the Eastern Cape, with most of the top achievers being home-grown Grahamstonians.
The top candidate is Jade Hart from Komgha with seven distinctions, and five of her subjects in the 90% range.
Jade finds herself in the Outstanding category of IEB matriculants, meaning that she is in the top 5% of learners in the country in six or more subjects.
She scored an astounding 99% for her Mathematics paper, 95% for Afrikaans, and 92% for Accounting.
Bhavik Daya achieved eight distinctions, with four of his subjects over 90%. Bhavik scored 97% for his Maths paper, and 93% for Physical Science, and his results put him in the IEB Commendable category of the top 5% of achievers in five of his subjects.
Bhavik Daya is the son of Professor Santy and Mrs Jiya Daya from Grahamstown. He has been a top academic throughout his time at Kingswood, being awarded Academic Honours in his Grade 11 year.
In his award citation, Kingswood staff described his "immense capacity for learning, creating and wondering about the world". He is also an accomplished musician.
Also from Grahamstown, Jethro Thorburn and Carla Wilby achieved seven distinctions apiece, and Michaela Hart (twin sister of Jade) and Timothy Plaskett each achieved six distinctions.
More Grahamstown boffins were Jessica Moss, Meghan Timm and Oliver Funk who achieved five distinctions each, with Michaela Bowker from Adelaide also raking in five.
College Head Jon Trafford was thrilled with Kingswood's 100% pass rate and the 117 distinctions achieved by the matric class of 2013.
Nineteen of these were for mathematics.
"This year's results underscore the hard work and commitment of our 2013 matriculants. "We are absolutely delighted with the achievements of our top academics, but also the overall matric examination performance and the number of top grades achieved across a range of subjects, by our pupils."
"Congratulations go to Bhavik Daya, Jade and Michaela Hart, Jethro Thorburn, Carla Wilby and Timothy Plasket for their outstanding performances – these are just reward for their hard work and commitment to their own studies."
"Equally, I must commend all our 2013 matric candidates for their endeavours this year; they can all feel well satisfied with their final results. I would also like to pay tribute to the teaching staff who laid the foundation for these successes," he said. "Their thorough preparation of our pupils went a long way to ensuring this year's remarkable examination achievements. Another year where we scored 100% is testimony to the hard work and professionalism of the staff."
Jade Hart comes from Komgha, daughter of Pierre and Susan Hart. She came to Kingswood only in 2012, along with her twin sister Michaela, and the duo quickly established themselves as top performers.
Jade achieved Academic Honours in Grade 11, averaging over 90% for all of her subjects in her first term at the College.
Michaela followed with her Honours Award earlier this year, with staff saying that she was the kind of pupil who was willing to "risk complete engagement".
The twins' father, Pierre, was Headboy of Kingswood College in his Matric year. Jethro Thorburn is the son of Professor Dominic Thorburn and Ms Jane Burnett of Grahamstown.
While at Kingswood, staff praised him for his absolute dedication to his studies and his natural ability to seek alternative solutions to problems.
He was also a top athlete and outstanding squash player, consistently ranked in the top 20 players in his age group over the years.
Timothy Plasket is the son of Judge Clive and Mrs Adrienne Plasket. Described by his teachers as a "consummate intellectual", Timothy is an accomplished writer and musician.
He achieved an outstanding 74% in the extremely tough Advanced Programme English paper as well as 93% for Mathematics.
