SCHOOL AWARDS and trophies
Explanation of Senior Prizes
The above button is a list of almost all prizes awarded to students at senior prizegiving. We can't guarantee it has all trophies, if you see there's one missing let us know :)
Awards, Prizes, and Principal's Commendation 2024
Explanation
Kia ora koutou, this document explains the various prizes and awards that Year 11 to 13 students can receive for their academic studies. Note that many of these awards are decided by derived grade exam results in Term 3 Week 6. The calculations are done by Mr Jake Wills and Mr Andy Pook.
Principal’s Commendation (Year 11-13)
In order to get a Principal’s Commendation, you need to pass at least 80% of your Achievement Standard credits at Excellence. Standards that can only be counted as achieved or not achieved are not counted towards the percentage.
Standards that are not part of the core course are not counted (eg: if you do an optional Psychology standard as part of the Statistics course would not count either for or against the award). If you want a standard not to be counted please email Mr Wills so he knows.
Principal’s commendations are worked out in Term 4 (Date for 2024 to be confirmed), so marks need to be in KAMAR by this date for them to count towards this award.
Dux and Proxime Accessit to Dux (Year 13), and Top in Year 11 and 12
The Dux is awarded to the student who has gained the highest academic achievement in a year. The Proxime Accessit to Dux is the student who is the runner up to the Dux, and based on the same criteria.
Things that contribute to this are the results from internals, derived grade results, and other academic activities students are involved in. In most cases the deciding factor is the school exam results. If you are doing anything (eg: university papers) that you think might contribute to this please email Mr Wills with what you are doing and any results / who to contact to verify results.
If students choose not to sit internals or externals that are a core part of any of their courses, this is also taken into account. Not sitting an internal or a school exam related to an external that is a core part of a course is counted as a Not Achieved.
Optional Standards
If you do any standard that is optional that you do not want to count, please make sure you email Mr Wills (jake.wills@kc.school.nz) so he knows to exclude it when doing his calculations.
List of Senior PrizeGiving Trophies and Awards
Your Academic Captains have compiled a spreadsheet of the various trophies awarded at Senior Prizegiving. You can see this list here. The sheet may not have all of the trophies awarded.
Note that the majority of trophies awarded are for top-in-class performance in a subject. The awards are organised by year level, area of performance, and subject department.
The trophies list above also contains the trophies for Sports and Service & Arts. Click on the tabs on the bottom of the spreadsheet to find these lists.
NCEA Endorsements
After exams NCEA can give you endorsements, these are different from distinctions & merits given by the school. To endorse the overall year in 2024 you need 50+ credits at Merit & Excellence combined for a Merit endorsement, and 50+ Excellence credits for an Excellence endorsement.
You can also achieve subject endorsements, you need 14+ credits at Merit/Excellence for a Merit endorsement including at least 3 external credits and 3 internal credits (excluding Physical education, Religious studies & Level 3 Visual Arts.) You need 14+ credits at Excellence for an Excellence endorsement including at least 3 external credits and 3 internal credits.
For more information go into the link above.
Distinctions & Merits
At prize giving students are also awarded ‘merits’ and ‘distinctions’ you do not need to be awarded a merit or distinction to be given an NCEA endorsement. They are awards separate from NZQA and are directly from the school (your derived grades count towards these school awards.)
Distinctions are awarded to the highest academically achieving students in a class, the amount awarded are fixed depending on the size of your class. Merits are awarded based on academics and effort, this means that you can receive a merit even if you aren’t the highest achiever.
If you have any questions feel free to contact your Academic Captains:
Note: The trophies list in the spreadsheet (linked in the document above) also contains the Sports and Services & Arts trophies. Click on the tabs on the bottom of the sheet.
If you have problems, contact Mr Wills (jake.wills@kc.school.nz) regarding award calculations and Ms Stockton (tracey.stockton@kc.school.nz) regarding trophies.