Matric Results 2016

We are delighted to announce that our 2016 Matrics have excelled in the IEB’s matriculation examinations. The Independent Examinations Board (IEB) offers a rigorous assessment of the National Senior Certificate curriculum, preparing our students well for tertiary study. We will be highlighting the achievements of our top performers below. We wish also to stress our pride in each matriculant who has done his best. We thank our teachers, parents and community for pulling together with our boys to enable them to achieve excellence and make a world of difference.

Our philosophy of learning and teaching promotes an academic culture which seeks to meet and extend the needs and styles of each student, enabling personalised and meaningful learning to take place. We pride ourselves on this approach, which seeks to optimise individual learning across the academic spectrum and includes enrolling a number of students with identified barriers to learning. We are proud of the top academic achievers, among the best in the country and whose results are documented individually, as well as of each student who has excelled against personal benchmarks.

Matric is the destination of a long journey of learning. We acknowledge the contributions of the teachers at the Preparatory Schools of St Stithians College, as well as those of other Primary Schools which educated this year’s Matric cohort. We pay tribute to the impact of Kamoka Bush School on the lives of our boys on their Saints journey.

At this time of focus on the academic gateway of Matric, we affirm our commitment to the education of young people of character, who make an impact as leaders and citizens, shaped by a Methodist ethos. Academic learning is complemented with a diverse and highly successful sporting, cultural, outdoor education and community engagement curriculum.

Below is a summary of the 2016 Matric results:

• Candidates :   145
• Pass rate: 100%
• Qualified for Bachelor Degree Studies (BD): 142 (98%)
• Qualified for Diploma Studies (D): 3 (2%)
• Distinctions (Level 7 or 80% and more): 352 (average of 2,43 per candidate)
• 1 result pending due to a candidate participating in international sport during examinations
• 39 boys achieved 4 or more distinctions
• 7 boys achieved the school's Academic Honours Summa Cum Laude award which is an average of 90% or more
• 78% of our boys achieved 1 or more distinctions

Message from the Head of School

To the Matric class of 2016 – A Message from Mr Knowles

Firstly, congratulations on these simply awesome results! I am sure that your parents are very proud of you, as are your teachers and as am I.

In a nutshell, your results are as follows: -

• 100% pass rate.
• 98% Bachelor Degree pass, an improvement from Prelims, and one of the highest percentages since we joined the IEB in 1993.
• A distinction average of 2.43 (and 78% of you achieved at least one distinction – remember what Mrs Frankiskos said to you at “Road Ahead”). This average is the highest since 1993, although the 2013 Matric class scored a 2.39% average. Well done indeed!
• And by the way, there are 30 subject marks on 79%, so with a few remarks going your way, this average could go up.
• Seven boys achieved Honours Summa Cum Laude, the second highest since we introduced the award in 2007. (Eight is the highest, in 2012)
• Three boys are on the IEB Outstanding and Commendable lists
• 19 of you achieved in the top 1% of the IEB in 32 different subject marks. Incredible!

I am aware that many of you set (or re-set) personal goals after Prelims (sometimes with a little encouragement from me or your teachers, and your parents!), and if you have achieved these goals, well done again. The stats above tend to mostly highlight our top end performers, but many of you will have fought your own battles to achieve your marks, and come out victorious, and to this end I salute you as well.  As such, statistics do not usually tell the full story, as there are always individual triumphs (that pleasing mark you achieved for a subject in which you always struggled, for example, or reaching that stretch goal you set, but didn’t expect to make) in every set of matric results.

I am sure that you will have thanked your teachers already, but perhaps if you have done really well in a subject, a further word of thanks now is also appropriate. In addition, I would urge you to thank your parents, and other significant people who have mentored you, coached you, and advised you. It’s the right thing to do now, as you celebrate. Your hard work, perseverance and good attitude are important ingredients in your success, but so is the input of others in your life, and not just in this matric year.

As you know, we at the BC often talk about the “Seven Pillars” (and we have even produced a coffee table book to this end), and now is the time to celebrate the Academic pillar, which sits at the base of the seven pillars.

Having said that, as we reflect on your year overall, you have achieved much as a year group, in all the other six pillars. Stop and reflect for a moment on what a year your matric class had, and your own individual contribution to that success, in whatever form. At your First Reunion early next year, and at your Ten Year Reunion, you will have much on which to reflect with pride. These Final Matric results will be part of that reflection. The 2016 year book, “The Stythian”, will highlight these successes, and there are many, in all the pillars. So 2016 will certainly go down as a year that “inspired (and achieved) excellence”, and that “made a world of difference”.

Finally, two points. Firstly, thank you to those of you (a significant number) who contributed generously to the 2016 Matric Gift. Your Head Boy, Thomas Eichner, and I have been in conversation, and will continue to be so. Your gift will be incorporated into the upgrade of the Chess Quad, planned for this year.

Secondly, and importantly, as we celebrate your academic results, we remember Cameron Conlon, and we keep in mind his parents, his sister and the extended family at this time.

Well done once again!

I wish you all, each one of you, all the very best as you go forward with your lives, in 2017 and in the future.

Yours sincerely 

Mr Dave Knowles

The national achievements of our top candidates

The following student was placed on the IEB’s list for Outstanding Achievement (i.e. top 5% of learners nationally in 6 or more subjects and 80% or more for Life Orientation):

The following students were placed on the IEB’s list for Commendable Achievement (i.e. top 5% of learners nationally in 5 subjects and 80% or more for Life Orientation): 

Top 1% of IEB candidates in their subject

The following students have achieved a result in the top 1% of IEB candidates in their subject:

Jonathan Baker (Life Orientation, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences)

Robert-Daniel Bardin (Afrikaans First Additional Language, Life Orientation)

Quinn Bawden (Life Orientation)

Martin Currin (Advanced Programme, Mathematics, Physical Sciences)                                    

Michael de Vos (Afrikaans First Additional Language, English Home Language, Life Orientation, Life Sciences, Physical Sciences)

Thomas Eichner (Life Orientation)

James Elliot (Accounting, Life Orientation, Mathematics)

Andrew Galatis (Life Orientation, Mathematics, Physical Sciences)

Keegan Hyde (Life Orientation)

Gregory Hutchings (Physical Sciences)

Nicholas Lambrechts (Life Orientation)

Denislav Marinov (TCL Practical 7)

Jordan McLachlan (Life Orientation)

Gareth McDonic (Life Orientation)

Trent Panzera (Geography)

Lungelo Rajuile (isiZulu First Additional Language)

Michael Stewart (Life Orientation)

Dylan Wells (History)

David Wright (Physical Sciences)

The following students qualified for the school's Academic Honours Summa Cum Laude Award (i.e. 90% average for their top seven subjects)

Jonathan Baker

Robert-Daniel Bardin

Martin Currin

Michael de Vos

James Elliot

Andrew Galatis

David Wright

Top candidates

We list our top candidates below in order of the number of distinctions obtained:

8 Distinctions (subjects at Level 7):  6 Boys

7 Distinctions (subjects at Level 7): 6 Boys

6 Distinctions (subjects at Level 7): 5 Boys

5 Distinctions (subjects at Level 7): 11 Boys

4 Distinctions (subjects at Level 7): 13 Boys

3 Distinctions (subjects at Level 7): 16 Boys

Keegan Backstrom, Michael  D’Amico, Yaseen Ebrahim, Christopher Fletcher, Victor Georgiev, Reece Goosen, Harry Lockwood, Jordan Manas, Zander Matthee, Ryan Painting, Lungelo Rajuile , Kaylen Saman, Devon Sarkis, Maximilian Silber, Aidan Smith, Alex Vos.

2 Distinctions (subjects at Level 7): 21 Boys

Matthew Bolt, Dean Brand, Keiran Brown, Joshua Coetzee, Damian Colman, Scott Greeff, Alexander Heath, Luke Kruger, Moremoholo Leboea, Matthew Leeuwen, Gregory Matthews, Medupi Monyatsi, James Netherlands, Ephraim Ozabor, Hudson Radomsky, Jeremy Saner, Luke Shehab, Ross Sheldrake, David Stockigt, Dylan Tehini, Kai Warrender

1 Distinction (subjects at Level 7): 35 Boys

Simon Allen, Brandon Bate, Jared Brazington, Michael Breytenbach, Gareth Crow, Reece Duthie, Joshua Eveleigh, Tristan Fichardt, Kian Fiskerstrand, Kyle Furlong, Benjamin Jack, Kevin Joseph, Hluma Manjezi, Dylan Miller, Matthew Minter, Scott Money, Londani Msimang, Pieter Mulder, Litha Myataza, Joshua Neser, S’bulele Njeke, Tyronne O’Grady, Jordan Pepermans, Dineshan Pillay, Michael Robinson, Tristan Savage, Andrew Schlebusch, Itumeleng Sebudi, Paul Sidersky, Dylan Solomon, Mitchell Stevens, Alexander Türk, Joshua Van Der Spuy, Brandon Vermaak, Kyle Voigt

Well done to all our matriculants!

We wish all our Matrics a fulfilling first year out of school, wherever they find themselves, and we encourage them – One and All – to stay connected with St Stithians as they venture forth into this new stage of their lives.