104 Star Students At 20 Schools Receive Cambridge Outstanding Learners Awards

After more than 10 years of the Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards in New Zealand, students around the country keep raising the bar for academic excellence alongside tens of thousands of their global peers.

Encompassing the two examination series held in June and November 2022, this year 104 stand-out New Zealand secondary school students from 20 schools received Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards.

Together these exceptional students have received 126 awards across 51 subjects, including 24 Top in World and 50 Top in New Zealand awards (for those who came first in a given subject among either all global students or their peers in New Zealand), and 48 High Achievement awards, which recognise their high performance in subjects that are less widely taken in New Zealand.

All of the awards recognise the achievements of New Zealand students who took Cambridge IGCSE and Cambridge International AS and A Levels in the June and November 2022 exam series.

Several students have excelled in multiple subjects:

• Best Across Three Cambridge International A Level subjects – Ryaan Sidhu, Auckland Grammar School. Ryaan was previously Best Across Four Cambridge International AS Level subjects in the 2022 Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards.
• Best Across Four Cambridge International AS Level subjects in the June exams – Alex Liu, Hamilton Boys’ High School. Alex previously achieved Top in the World in Cambridge IGCSE Co-ordinated Sciences in 2022, a double award.
• Best Across Four Cambridge International AS Level subjects in the November exams – Jessica Liu, ACG Sunderland.
• Best Across Five Cambridge IGCSE subjects – Charotte Stokes, ACG Parnell College. Charlotte is also receiving two Top in the World awards (Spanish and History) and a Top in New Zealand award (Co-Ordinated Sciences, a double award).

The success of the current crop of Cambridge International students includes awards but reaches even further, with several being propelled by their academic achievements into some of the world’s foremost universities. Rangimarie (Mari) Puttick, the 2022 Dux and Deputy Head Girl of ACG Parnell College, received High Achievement for Cambridge International A Level Spanish and has been accepted to study at the University of Cambridge. Mari’s twin sister Caragh Puttick, ACG Parnell College’s Head Prefect in 2022, has been admitted to another prestigious United Kingdom university, St Andrew’s.

In addition to receiving the ACG Founders’ Scholarship Mari has been awarded the Sir Douglas Myers Scholarship, New Zealand’s most prestigious and competitive university entrance scholarship, which is awarded to one student annually and provides full financial support for the recipient’s studies at Gonville and Caius College at Cambridge. Mari commences her study of the Human, Social, and Political Science Tripos in October 2023.

Three other members of the Cambridge International class of 2022 at ACG Parnell College have also been accepted to illustrious global institutions: Queena Peng will study Education and Benjamin (Benji) Witters will study Classics at the University of Cambridge, and Helen Kang will go to the University of Oxford to study Biomedicine.

ACG Parnell College principal Damian Watson says, “The ‘trifecta’ of acceptance into the University of Cambridge, as well as Caragh and Helen’s impressive achievements, is remarkable. To the best of our knowledge only four or five students in New Zealand typically get into Cambridge each year for undergraduate study, so three from one school in a single year is exceptional.”

The students were celebrated at an event at Eden Park in Auckland on 16 February. Previous pandemic restrictions meant this is the first awards ceremony to be held as an in-person event in three years.

Kanjna Paranthaman, Southeast Asia & Pacific Regional Director for Cambridge International, says all Cambridge International learners and teachers have shown astonishing fortitude during a volatile past three years, and returning to an awards gathering without restrictions feels all the more special.

“Last year was a period of finding the new normal, and getting back into classrooms gave students fresh opportunities to think, discuss, explore, and excel. The students recognised in the 2023 Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards are a diverse group from 20 different schools in various parts of New Zealand, but what they have in common is a commitment to pushing their boundaries of their own learning and to setting and pursuing audacious goals.

“Their ambition is evident in their collective achievements across 51 Cambridge International subjects, in the awards recognition of some students for the second year in a row, and in the fact that Cambridge International students are being selected to attend some of the finest institutions in the world. We are proud of every learner and wish them a successful year ahead.”

Following the worldwide November 2022 exam series, in January 2023 more than 73,500 students received their Cambridge International AS & A Level, Cambridge AICE and Cambridge International Project Qualification results, and more than 91,000 students received their Cambridge IGCSE and O Level results. Cambridge International has awarded grades to students in 132 countries.

A family culture of excellence and service

Rangimarie (Mari) Puttick comes from extraordinary stock, a close family of six which loves to travel and make the most of New Zealand, tramping, hiking, and cycling together. During lockdown the Putticks adapted quickly to home-based rounds of cards and board games. Mari and her twin sister Caragh have a younger sister in Year 9 and an older brother studying medicine at Otago University, following in the footsteps of their doctor parents who, Mari says, “have devoted their whole lives to public service. They have spent their careers working in England and New Zealand for the public health system and our dad often goes to Africa to help on mercy ships. Our mum grew up in Nepal and spent years going back and helping at medical camps. Having that constant example of parents who want to change other people’s lives has been really inspiring and makes me think about how I can do some sort of good in the world.”

In Mari’s final two years at ACG Parnell College she completed Cambridge International A Level Biology and Mathematics in Year 12 and Geography, English, Economics, and Spanish (receiving High Achievement for the latter) in Year 13, when she was 2022 Dux and Deputy Head Prefect. Her academic success set her on a path to the Sir Douglas Myers Scholarship* and the University of Cambridge, where she will commence her study of the Human, Social, and Political Science Tripos this October.

Mari says, “What attracted me to the University of Cambridge course was its variety and the autonomy you have in what you study – there are papers in politics, social anthropology, and sociology just in the first year, and later you can specialise or keep it broad. I have always struggled with choosing subjects because I find many different things interesting, which is why I did as wide a range of subjects as possible at school.

“Cambridge International is demanding in some aspects, but I thrived on that challenge and the discipline it required, which is a valuable thing to learn at a young age. It expanded my worldview, taught me how to think for myself and distil information, and gave me a strong foundation of knowledge and useful skills I can apply to higher learning.

“At university I am hoping to find what I’m really passionate about. My hope for the future is to do something that helps other people, which fosters international understanding and cultural empathy – something that benefits New Zealand, because I’m very grateful to New Zealand for all the opportunities it has given me.”

*The Sir Douglas Myers Scholarship is New Zealand’s most prestigious and competitive university entrance scholarship. It is awarded to one student annually and provides full financial support for the recipient’s studies at Gonville and Caius College at Cambridge.

A classical mind

Benjamin (Benji) Witters is heading to the University of Cambridge to study Classics, and it’s possible no one is more surprised than him. “There was no point where that was something I'd ever expect. Really, I got in just from excellent performance in my final two years of high school. Last year I did Cambridge International A Level English Literature, History, and Classics – they were all relevant for the subject I applied for at uni and I knew I needed one A* to get into Cambridge. And then I got three A* and Top in the World for History, and I almost felt like there was some divine intervention to get me into Cambridge.”

One of a cohort of stellar new graduates from ACG Parnell College who are going on to the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, and St Andrew’s, Benji says he always understood that many global institutions value the Cambridge International curriculum. “Cambridge International took a very complex view for my subjects in essay writing, and that's an invaluable skill even if you're not a student, just to be able to articulate yourself in flexible ways. I think Cambridge International has more rigour in that regard. There is a subtlety in how they mark your exams, which says to me that they've got a great appreciation of the different tenets of academic performance.

“The courses are shaped like pre-university in the sense that there are texts and then one final exam with questions based on that variety of texts. It's not exactly laid out for you in the final two years so you benefit from planning ahead, using the syllabuses online, which helped me a lot.”

A student with his degree of achievement has a multitude of options, and Benji admits Classics is “not an obvious pathway. If you study neuroscience, I'm sure you're going to be a neuroscientist, but Classics is so multifaceted, between drama and literature, poetry, history, philosophy. I think I have the right to say that I’m going to wait a bit [to decide on a career path]. What I've entertained the idea of would be a job where, say, someone has found a piece of pottery in Syria and they have no idea if it's real or fake, they might send it to me and I can examine it. Something like that relating to archaeology might be interesting.”

Benji credits his parents for opening up his world to such possibility and says another important role model influenced his study path. “My parents have done so much – it wasn’t easy for them to find the money to pay for my schooling, and even going to Cambridge now, me working full-time isn't enough and I need their help. They've been hugely supportive. And I was introduced to Classics by a family friend, an older artist who used to teach Classics. When I was at school I used to go and see him once a week and he would tutor me in the subject purely for fun. I think that's where it started for me.”

Perhaps the biggest adjustment Benji, a water lover, will have to make in moving to the United Kingdom is the landlocked nature of the city of Cambridge, whose nearest coastline meets the chilly North Sea. “I like to swim. I really do. I have spent practically half my life in Gisborne with its wonderful beaches. And even this summer, despite the weather, I went swimming just about every day.”

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