Academic successes – November 2024

Biology Olympiad

Five St Andrews’ College students won a Bronze Award in the 2024/25 New Zealand International Biology Olympiad (NZIBO) – Hoi Sang (Kevin) Chen (Year 12), Lucy Binnie, Daniel Liu, Ken Minh-Ky Pham (all Year 11) and Hanxi (Cicy) Chen (Year 10).

Book Launch

Jessica Armstrong (Year 9) wrote and self-published a children’s book focused on psychology, titled A small book on psychology for younger readers, which she launched at the College.

Business Studies Night Market

Twenty teams from St Andrew’s College, Cashmere High School, and St Margaret’s College participated at the annual Night Market, which was attended by whānau, friends, and potential customers and investors of the Business Studies students.

Cantamath

At the annual Cantamath Competition at Wolfbrook Arena the Year 8 team of Cong (Zilong) Chen, Benjamin Yu, Emmett Lawler and Baizhen (Tony) Chen won a coveted ‘golden ticket’ for answering all the questions correctly and won first place in a record time of just over 14 minutes. In the Year 9 competition, StAC 1 and StAC 2 finished second and third behind Lincoln High School, and in the Year 10 competition, StAC 1 was second, and StAC 2 was fourth.

Chemistry

At the Year 11 Ara Chemistry Competition, Ellie Zhou, Ken Minh-Ky Pham and Katie Chan won first place, with the other St Andrew’s team, of Joshua Exon and Luke and Alex Manson, placing fourth.

Chess

At the Canterbury Interschool Individual Chess Tournament, a group of Years 6–8 students represented St Andrew’s, with Samuel Rijpma finishing second in Year 6.

Debating

A masterful effort from the StAC White debating team of Katherine Simcock, Isobel Forsey and James Hart (all Year 13) saw them unanimously win the Canterbury Secondary Schools’ Debating final, beating Rangi Ruru Girls’ School.

The StAC 1 debating team of Lachlan Hackston, Hanxi (Cicy) Chen (both Year 10) and Matthew Bluck (Year 11) beat St Margaret’s in the final to win the Junior Debating Canterbury Regionals. Lachlan Hackston was also awarded Best Speaker of the tournament. The Year 9 team, in their first inter-school debating competition, narrowly lost in their semi-final.

Future Problem Solving

Emmett Lawler (Year 8) won first place as an individual in the Junior Division at the National Future Problem Solving finals. The Year 8 team comprising Ethan Zhao, Joy Zuo, Juno Park and Cong (Zilong) Chen also made the finals in the Global Issue Problem Solving section on the contest.

Mathematics

Cong (Zilong) Chen (Year 8) received one of the top 30 prizes for the Year 9 competition at the University of Otago Junior Mathematics Competition. Luke Manson and Alex Manson (both Year 11) also scored in the Top 30 across New Zealand.

For the second year in a row, Cong (Zilong) Chen (Year 8) achieved a perfect score in the Junior Division (Years 8–9 in Australasia) in the Australian Mathematics Competition. He won the Peter O’Halloran Award for his outstanding achievement.

Emmett Lawler (Year 8) attained the highest score and the fastest time in the Kiwi Year 8 Mathematics Competition administered by the University of Canterbury.

Alex Manson, Luke Manson and Joshua Exon (all Year 11) competed in the New Zealand Senior Mathematics Competition, placing in the Top 20 out of 297 teams.

Photography

With her photograph of a duck underwater, Chaio ting Huang (Year 10) won the Amazing Animals Photo Competition in the 11–18 years category from hundreds of entries received.

Physics and Mathematics

A small group of students represented the College in Round 2 of the New Zealand Physics and Mathematics Competition (NZPMC) South Island finals, with the following results:

• Senior Division: Aaron Moore first, Bryan Cooper second (both Year 13);

• Junior Division: Luke Manson (Year 11) third;

• Cong (Zilong) Chen (Year 8) was the only student under Year 10 to qualify to compete, and one of the Top 10 students in Round 1 of the Junior Division.

Science Fair

At the Canterbury-Westland Science Fair, Keer (Tessa) Meng and Violet McInnes (both Year 9) won the Best Year 9/10 Science Fair Project, and a special first prize from the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry, Canterbury branch for their research on the effectiveness of nanoparticles in sunscreen. ZiQi (Maggie) Xu and Muyi (Bella) Yang (both Year 9) secured third place for their investigation into the browning of apples.

Thriving Minds Conference

Julie Arliss, who is based at Oxford University, UK, facilitated two Thriving Minds (Philosophy) Conferences at St Andrew’s College with topics captivating St Andrew’s students and the 260 other students from wider Canterbury-based schools. The highlights included Xavier Dickason (OC 2020) debating against Julie Arliss for the two House debates, and the ‘live from Oxford University’ lecture from Dr Andrew Pinsent on Science and Miracles.

Times Tables

Class 6T won ninth place out of 163 schools at the national Times Tables Rock Stars competition, demonstrating exceptional skill and teamwork.