Each year, the IB Schools of New Zealand Top Scholars’ Awards Ceremony is held at Government House in Auckland, His Excellency The Governor General of New Zealand, Lt Gen The Rt Hon Sir Jerry Matapeparae presented awards to those New Zealand IB students who had achieved 40+ points out of a possible 45 in their final examinations.

This year 60 of New Zealand’s top IB students were invited. Saint Kentigern College was well represented with four students being honoured - three of them were available to attend the ceremony. Jiachen (Joe) Lu, (44/45), Lorenz Bartsch (43/45) and Samuel Gilmour (43/45) received their awards from the Governor General. Unfortunately, Jun-Yi (Nicole) Tan 41/45 was unable to attend the ceremony as she was overseas.

In New Zealand, twelve schools are now accredited to teach the IB Diploma and in 2012, 445 New Zealand candidates were awarded their Diploma joining nearly a million other students from 140 countries around the world who undertake this qualification. To achieve the title of an IB Top Scholar, graduates must achieve a score of at least 40 points; a feat achieved by only 6% of the world’s IB students yet a remarkable 13% of New Zealand’s 445 candidates in 2012.

In honouring the students the Governor General stressed that the IB Diploma is considerably more than a prestigious academic qualification. Here in New Zealand the IB remains true to the holistic vision of its founders, to create inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. The qualification is highly regarded as a young person not only has to be an excellent scholar, but also embrace a shared global philosophy.

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