Our congratulations to Georgia Foster who has been awarded Top in Subject in New Zealand and an Outstanding Scholarship Award for her NZQA (NZ Qualification Authority) Scholarship exam in Printmaking. Georgia is one of 23 Saint Kentigern students to be awarded a Scholarship in the 2014 external Scholarship examinations.

Printmaking has been offered at NCEA Level 2 and 3 since 2013 through the combined paint and print course with students selecting their medium according to their strength or interest. Art teacher, Ms Vicci Sword said, ‘Georgia produced a brave and contemporary folio that was grounded in traditional print practice but used a new vocabulary of modern technologies. The context of her work surrounded people and place, developing formalist abstract imagery from a realistic starting point.’

Georgia also integrated photography, design and drawing-based approaches to extend her work and utilised the technologies and equipment available to her in the Jack Paine Centre, including the dark room and laser cutter. Ms Sword said Georgia’s outstanding achievement was the result of ‘Hard work, late nights and high level thinking!’

Well done Georgia!

In the end of year NZQA Scholarship examinations, 23 of our students gained a total of 30 Scholarships, with one classed as Outstanding, across a broad range of 16 subjects. In particular, we offer congratulations to our highest performing students; Georgia Foster for her Outstanding Scholarship, and Aditya Arolkar, Ashley Chan, Bokai (Andrew) Qi, Callum Andrews, Hannah Wood, Max Christie and Theodore Lloyd David who were each awarded two Scholarships.

Scholarship exams are rigorous, requiring high level abstract thinking and the application of knowledge and ideas to complex situations. NZQA’s intention is that 3% of the total number of Year 13 students in the country sitting Level 3 in each of the 27 available subjects will be awarded a Scholarship, provided Scholarship standards are met. Of this top 3% nationwide who gain a Scholarship pass, a small number, equating to approximately 0.5% nationwide will be accorded an Outstanding Scholarship.

At Saint Kentigern, our brightest NCEA students can elect to study towards Scholarship exams. Scholarship exams are offered by NZQA and are, therefore, aligned to NCEA. Where course content is similar, our IB Diploma students can also elect to sit Scholarship exams. However, in many cases this is not possible for some of our brightest IB Diploma students as each year there are examination clashes.

There is great monetary incentive for students to aim to achieve in these exams. New Zealand students who do well in Scholarship gain substantial monetary awards. A Scholarship in just one subject receives $500, as a single payment. Georgia’s award as Top in a subject is worth $2000 a year for three years of tertiary study, provided a B average is achieved.

Share this