Rangitoto College

Top Scholars and a Prime Minister’s Award

- Rangitoto College prepares students for success

Rangitoto College is immensely proud of the recognition that two of our students received at the Beehive in May. Each year, a special event is held at Parliament to celebrate the success of New Zealand’s top students. The highest achieving student in each scholarship subject receives recognition of their success from the government at the Top Scholar Awards Ceremony, attended by the students and their whānau.

This year Ashley Huddart, who was a Year 12 student in 2021, received the award for Top Scholar in New Zealand for Physical Education. Ashley was incredibly honoured to receive this award and said that she “really enjoyed the opportunity to talk with and celebrate the achievements of some very inspiring students”. This is an outstanding achievement for Ashley and is testament to her dedication and hard work. In 2020, as a Year 11 student, she gained one of 15 Outstanding Health and Physical Education Scholarships awarded. In 2021, she gained top marks and Top Scholar with 24 out of 24 for a totally different selected document. Her topic of choice was Sport New Zealand’s Every Body Active strategy, which attempts to analyse the decline in participation in youth sport. Special thanks goes to teacher Jamie Sowter for her mentorship.

In addition to the Top Scholars in each subject, this award ceremony also announced and celebrated the Prime Minister’s Award for Academic Excellence. This award recognises the success of the top New Zealand Scholarship student in the country. The recipient showcases the highest overall academic excellence of all the Premier Award winners.

Rangitoto College was honoured to see this prestigious award being presented to one of our own, 2021 Rangitoto College Dux, Cameron Senior. Cameron was annouced as the sole recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for 2021 by Deputy Prime Minister, the Honourable Grant Robertson. Dr Grant Klinkum, NZQA Chief Executive, acknowledged the additional remarkability of Cameron’s success in a year that was so disrupted by Covid-19. In his acceptance speech, Cameron acknowledged the support of those who helped him throughout his time at Rangitoto College, explaining that “this award is really the culmination of the efforts of my family, friends, and teachers who instilled in me a passion for learning." Cameron is incredibly deserving of this award as he broke a number of records with his results.

Cameron achieved Outstanding Scholarships in Art History, English, Geography, Health and Physical Education, History, Physics, and Statistics. He also achieved Scholarships in Biology, Calculus, and Chemistry. He was Top Scholar in three of these subjects: Art History, Geography, and Statistics. These enormous achievements come as no surprise to those who know Cameron. Cameron is an incredibly dedicated student and was widely involved in a number of co-curricular activities at Rangitoto College, exemplifying our

Cameron Senior with the Associate Minister of Education, Hon. Jan Tinetti.

school’s belief that students should experience academic success and be involved in the wider school community. Cameron showed consistently high achievement during his time at Rangitoto College, also receiving a number of Scholarships and a Premier Award in the 2020 round of examinations. His success is a credit to his own dedication, and the support and hard work of his whānau and teachers. Cameron is currently studying a Bachelor of Biomedical Science at the University of Auckland, with a goal of gaining entry into the medical programme. We are very proud of Cameron’s success at Rangitoto College and look forward to seeing where this will take him in the future. Cameron Senior and Ashley Huddart both truly exemplify Rangitoto College’s guiding principle—Great Opportunities, Great Students.. Ashley Huddart.