ALEXA DELIGHTED WITH HER BIG 10

Determined Kingsmead matriculant racks up 10 distinctions

MICHELLE LORBER

DESPITE a challenging year, Alexa Lipchin achieved 10 distinctions. This resilient and resolute learner who attended Kingsmead College, Cape Town, says it’s important to stay motivated.

“The teachers and staff helped to ensure that we transitioned into online learning really fast, so I didn’t miss a day of school,” she says.

“I tried my best to focus on all subjects, but I feel my results are an accumulation of the work I put into all my subjects from junior school through to high school.”

She received distinctions in Afrikaans (First Language), English (Home Language) French (Second Language), geography, life orientation, life sciences, maths, physical sciences, music (TCL Practical 7) and the advanced programme in maths.

“In the years leading into matric I was very busy with extramurals such as dance. I completed my ballet exams and modern and piano exams, which kept me really busy. However, this helped me learn to manage my time,” Lipchin says.

“Being in matric during lockdown, I felt it was important to keep being productive. My day would start at 6 and end at 6. This year I kept to a routine. I would go running before school lessons started and I sat at my desk to work.”

Alexa plans to study medicine. “After a job shadow at Baragwanath Academic Hospital during Grade 11, I was inspired by what I saw in terms of helping people. I really want to do something like that with my life.”

She hopes to study medicine at Wits next year.

Lipchin’s advice to matrics this year is to work consistently. “My parents taught me not to wish for more, but to work for it,” she says.

Asked how she found distance learning, she said at first there was a great deal of uncertainty. “But the teachers were great at helping us to do that and uplifting us,” she says.

Executive head Lisa Palmer is over the moon with the results. “With 2020 being such an unusual year, we had no benchmark,” she says. “In previous years, we had a sense of our group and what they were capable of producing.”

She said that during the worry about possible disconnection from March to June (with online learning), the college staff were concerned whether their pupils were coping but they “proved to all of us they are beyond excellent”.

“Our students showed such determination, almost more than in the previous year. They were determined they could do it, and do it well.

“We closed on a Sunday in March. By Wednesday morning, the college was online. During those two days, the staff were on-site getting platforms ready. So we went straight on to online learning.

“Parents’ messaged to say it was remarkable what the staff had accomplished in such a challenging year. Our staff went above and beyond, as did our students,” she says.