Scholars and Honours Board

A special feature of this school is its magnificent academic record. The primary focus of Auckland Grammar School is of course academia – every other aspect of school life is secondary to this. The first lines of our mission states:

“Auckland Grammar School will provide young men with a rigorous academic education. Each young man is expected to pursue excellence in acquiring knowledge and skills while upholding the School’s values.”

The young men who will cross the stage today deserve recognition for academic excellence in 2021. It is important to the very being of this school that we celebrate academia in the manner we do today.

Performance in Cambridge A level examinations and Scholarship examinations or equivalents in different decades of our history, have provided the benchmark indicators for inclusion on the prestigious honours boards that frame this hall.

These boards recognise top academic performers through our School’s history. Students who sat NZ Scholarship examinations and gained three or more scholarships are included on the honours board and both Cambridge and Scholarship results will be recognised in individual student citations read today.

The School through time has used external examinations as its benchmark. Because of their competitive nature and the all-round standard of attainment needed for success, these examinations inevitably favour young men who have been committed to their studies and have built resilience.

The Honours Boards that surround our hall are symbolic of the School’s academic mission and inclusion on them is rigorously earned.

The group of young men we honour today are top academic students from a talented Form 7 and 6A and B who were part of the make-up that earned this school its position as a top performing Cambridge School with nine special awards in Cambridge examinations, which included:

• Eight Top in the World Awards;
• Nine Top in New Zealand Awards; and
• Eight High Achievement Awards

Alongside these awards the School was once again one of the top three performing schools in the country in NZQA Scholarship examinations, after students earned 160 individual scholarship awards in 2021. There is no doubt this supports our vision: ‘pre -eminence in boys’ secondary education.’

It is appropriate on this occasion, in the Great Hall, that we recognise our past – the foundation on which academic success continues to be built. There are many distinguished scholars who studied at Grammar and later received higher honours and academic recognition. Eminent scholars like Professor Peter McNaughton ’62, Professor Keith Hunter ’65, Professor Mark Warner ’65 and many others who have made contributions across a myriad of fields.

It is indeed a feature of Auckland Grammar School that the Honours Boards are around the hall and that we meet here daily – this symbolises the primary place that academia has in our School and is well-respected by our Old Boy community and the general public.

Entry onto this list is restricted to the top 10% of the entire form 7 cohort plus 6A and 6B. The lowest average mark on the Honours Board for 2021 is 92%.

A number of scholars have earned scholarships into NZ universities and many have gained direct entry into overseas universities. This is testament to the calibre of these young men and the support given to them by masters throughout their tenure at Auckland Grammar School.

My thanks to our masters for their commitment to providing rigorous academic courses and pathways, on call mentoring and tutoring that has aided the level of success celebrated. I hope their success serves as motivation for others to strive for excellence in your studies. Such success does not happen by accident.

Sir John Graham, the ninth Headmaster of Auckland Grammar School, offered the students at the end of 1976 the following advice. He said:

“Start thinking about what you want to do, don’t aim for the middle, aim for the top, and the top is not necessarily playing for New Zealand in sport, or being the top accountant or lawyer or heart surgeon. Aiming for the top means aiming for your personal best. It is not unhealthy to aim high; it is not unhealthy to be ambitious, but it is folly not to do your best. If you aim to do your best, you will be well along the way to making life the fun and challenge it should be.”

We have a group of scholars on stage who aimed for the top and reached their academic goals. Their personal best. We congratulate them for “leaving the jersey in a better place” and I encourage each of you to aim for the top in what you do, and enjoy the journey along the way, and the reward if it follows. 

We wish each of the young men on stage the very best with their chosen studies in 20221 and their future careers. 

Guest speaker Professor Sir Peter Gluckman ’61 spoke to the student body and present the scholars with their certificates and ties; click here to read his address.