Diocesan School for Girls

The Diocesan School for Girls Matric class of 2019 has attained a 100% Bachelor’s Degree (BD) pass with 37% of all subject symbols being distinctions and a whopping 75% of subject symbols achieved being either distinctions or Bs (above 70%).

In addition, three DSG girls have made the IEB Merit list for Commendable Achievement; this means that they are placed in the top 5% nationally across five subjects and have attained a Level 7 for Life Orientation. We warmly congratulate Emily Morgan, Nina Owen-Jones and Genevieve Powell on this significant honour.

We are also delighted that DSG girls are mentioned on 11 occasions for being placed in the top 1% nationally in individual subjects. Congratulations to the following:

Accounting: Saffron Gifford; English Home Language: Genevieve Powell; IsiXhosa First Additional Language: Nosiphiwo Nabo; Life Orientation: Nina Owen-Jones; Life Sciences: Nina Owen-Jones, Emily Morgan and Saffron Gifford; Music: Emily Morgan; Visual Arts: Phoebe Elliott, Genevieve Powell and Hannah Loggie.

The following girls achieved a full house of seven distinctions: Saffron Gifford, Emily Morgan, Nina Owen-Jones and Sarah Stevenson. Nina Owen-Jones also attained a distinction for her Cambridge A level Mathematics exam; effectively taking her distinction count to eight.

Lucy Schlebusch attained six distinctions and a further six girls attained five distinctions. They are Laura Fowlds, Josie Hickey, Hannah Loggie, Lisakhanya Maqula, Julia Murray and Kate Procter.

Seven girls achieved four distinctions and a whopping 16 attained three distinctions. Special mention must be made of Sage Cawse who attained three distinctions and 79% for each of her four remaining subjects. Congratulations are also due to the six departments whose 2019 class averages are distinctions: Dramatic Arts; IsiXhosa; Life Orientation; Mandarin, Subject Music and Visual Arts. Equally pleasing are the six bigger departments whose averages were above 75%: Business Studies, Design, English, French, History and Mathematical Literacy.

I am sure you will wish to join me in extending a very warm congratulations to the Matric girls of 2019 and to the academic staff of DSG and at St Andrew’s College. We are proud of our academic record which I know can be largely attributed to the strong work ethic among our pupil body, good parental support and a well-trained, committed and dedicated academic staff.

I wish our 2019 Matric girls much success as they embark on the next chapter of their lives.

• Shelley Frayne, principal, DSG.

St Andrew’s College

The 2019 St Andrew’s College Matrics achieved a 100% pass rate, with 94% of the boys achieving a Bachelor Degree pass.

Alexander Pezarro, from Gaborone, Botswana, achieved six distinctions (five IEB distinctions and one Cambridge A Level distinction). He achieved 97% for IEB Mathematics and 92% for Cambridge A Level Mathematics. Dylan Bowker (Middleburg), Christopher Poole (Port Elizabeth), James York (Makhanda) and Sebastian McIntosh (Cape Town) all achieved five distinctions, as well as Merrion Gess, Daniel Roodt (both from Bathurst), Ignus Potgieter, Ryan Ford, Peter Voges (all three from Makhanda), Craig Macpherson (Malawi), and Daniel Stijkel (Harare, Zimbabwe) who all achieved four distinctions.

Dylan Bowker and Alexander Pezarro were placed in the top 1% nationally in Geography and Mathematics, respectively.

We would also like to acknowledge those boys who have achieved some of the best results of their school careers. The following boys improved on their Grade 11 Promotion Mark aggregate by more than five percent: Mathew Conroy, Zion Makani, Zandi Gaga, James Ovendale, Freddy Turner, Stewart Smith, Chiko Mundashi, Benjamin Aliker, Andrew Clucas, Merrion Gess.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the staff of St Andrew’s College and Diocesan School for Girls (DSG) who played such an integral part in the education of the St Andrew’s College Matrics over the past five years, as well as their classmates from DSG. We extend heartfelt congratulations to Saffron Gifford, Emily Morgan, Nina Owen-Jones, Genevieve Powell and Sarah Stevenson from DSG, on all achieving 7 distinctions.
The Class of 2019 have made a massive contribution to St Andrew’s College in their time here and their final matric results mark a very successful end to what was a really positive year for them.

These results reflect the enormous amount of hard work put in by boys and staff alike and, hidden away behind the headlines are some remarkable stories of determination in the face of adversity – creating success through never giving up – the very epitome of our motto Nec Aspera Terrent.

I am excited by the positive progress that we are making in terms of our Academic Excellence strategy and I know that our boys will carry these achievements into a complex world in the next phase of their journey well prepared to become productive and successful young men, wherever in the world they find themselves. I wish them God’s richest blessings!

• Alan Thompson,  Headmaster, St Andrew’s College

Kingswood College

The Kingswood College matric class of 2019 achieved a 100% pass rate with a total of 98 distinctions.
Tracy van Molendorff, Kingswood Senior School Head, said, “We are proud of the class of 2019. We are not only pleased with the number of distinctions… but are also extremely proud of those pupils who, as a result of their dedication, perseverance and with the help of our hugely committed academic staff, achieved well beyond our expectations. We wish our matric class of 2019 much success as they embark on their next chapter.”

The Kingswood College Dux Scholar for 2019, Françoise Marais, achieved an overall average of 86.42%. Francoise, who comes from South Africa, but who is currently living in Strasbourg (France), has obtained seven distinctions for Afrikaans 1st additional language, Engineering Graphics and Design, English Home Language, Life Orientation, Life Sciences, Mathematics and Physical Science.

Françoise was also in the top 1% for Afrikaans first additional language. Marais will be commencing her tertiary studies in September in Europe.

Rachel Strachan, who comes from Makhanda, has achieved an overall average of 81.3% with six distinctions in Afrikaans 1st additional language, English Home Language, History, Life Orientation Life Sciences and Mathematics. Rachel will be doing a gap year in the south of France before going to UCT to pursue her tertiary studies.

Simeon Smit, who is from King William’s Town, achieved an overall average of 84.8%. He obtained five distinctions for Afrikaans 1st additional language, English Home Language, History, Life Orientation and Music. Simeon will be studying Theology through correspondence with the South African Theological Seminary while working at a Church in 2020.

Reatile Balopi (Gaborone, Botswana), Quinlan Caiger (Makhanda), Chloe Knight (Cape Town), James Lankester (Makhanda) and Henning van Zyl (Makhanda) all achieved four distinctions each.

Dr Colleen Vassiliou, College Head, said, “Kingswood College values academic excellence. So much goes into preparing for the Matric final examinations. Parents give support and our teachers invest time and energy hoping to bring out the best in each and every pupil and the pupils themselves give of their best to obtain the best possible results to enable them to pursue their chosen vocation.

“Grit, hard work, determination and focus are vital character traits that lead to success. We applaud our pupils for working hard. I need to commend our teachers for assisting the academically stronger pupils, whilst never forgetting and helping those that require extra support. These pupils also really excelled and we congratulate them.”

• Stephané Bouwer,  Marketing and Brand Manager

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