Academic successes – November 2025

Brain Bee

Hanxi (Cicy) Chen’s (Year 11) exceptional performance saw her achieve second overall against top students from across the South Island at Brain Bee, an international neuroscience competition for Year 11 students. Cicy was later selected as one of eight students to attend the Neuroscience Internship Day at the University of Otago’s Centre for Neuroendocrinology (CNE).

ICAS Gold Medals

Four students were awarded an ICAS Gold Medal this year for achieving the highest score in New Zealand for their year level and subject in the International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS):

Anqi (Angie) Qin (Year 7) – Writing

Cong (Zilong) Chen (Year 9) – Mathematics

Jonathan Armstrong (Year 9) – Science

Alex Manson (Year 12) – Science

Cantamath

The Year 9 StAC 1 team delivered an outstanding performance at the annual Cantamath competition, completing all 20 questions in a record-setting 11 minutes and 45 seconds to win their competition. The Year 10 StAC 1 team finished third, and the Year 9 StAC 3 and Year 7 team finished fifth overall in their competitions.

Chemistry Olympiad

Hanxi (Cicy) Chen (Year 11), Luke Manson and Alex Manson (both Year 12) earned Silver Certificates in the prestigious Chemistry Olympiad Examination, placing them in the top 30 per cent nationally. As a result, they have been invited to join anational training group.

Chess

At the Canterbury Interschool Individual Chess Competition, Alex Manson (Year 12) won the Year 12 competition, Cayden Wang (Year 13) was second in the Year 13 division, and Anthony Song (Year 10) was third.

Creative Writing

St Andrew’s writers have had numerous recent successes:

• Penny Scarlett (Year 9) and Mia Zhang (Year 7) won first place in their categories in The Frost Entomological Museum 2025 Hexapod Haiku Challenge, and were named laureates;

• Heidi Smith (Year 11) was runner-up in the Young Poet category at the International EJCA Spring Haiku Contest;

• At the 2025 New Zealand Poetry Society International Poetry Competition, students recognised were: Haiku Junior: Jed Croft (Year 9) second; Charlotte Currie (Year 9) third; Highly Commended: Tom Heiler (Year 11), Aysha Adair (Year 9) and Alfred Lash (Year 7); Commended: Samuel Hu (Year 10), Austin Donaldson, Alexander Ballin (both Year 11), Hudson Blyde (Year 9); Open Junior: Ken Minh-Ky Pham and Jinyang (Yang) Zhang (both Year 12) – joint runners-up; Highly Commended: Noah Fanene (Year 13); Commended: Matthew Bluck, Annie Young (both Year 12); Editor’s Choice Awards: Charli Howell (Year 9), James Ryan (Year 11) and Teresa Steiner (Year 12);

• Claire Zhao and Alfred Lash (both Year 7), Emma Zhang (Year 8), Hudson Blyde (Year 9) and Samuel Hu (Year 10) had poems selected for publication as part of the Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day Given Words Competition;

• Katrina Wallis, Tom Heiler (both Year 11) and Jinyang (Yang) Zhang (Year 12) won Highly Commended awards in the Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook student writing competition;

• Cooper Harris (Year 13) was featured as a guest poet at the Canterbury Poets’ Collective young adults’ poetry night;

• Ashton Harris (Year 9) and Alfie Swain (Year 10) gained Honourable Mentions at the Vancouver Invitational Haiku Competition;

• In the St Andrew’s College Secondary School Creative Writing Competition, Angus Davidson (Year 12) was awarded first place overall for his prose piece, For Eden to Fall. Katie Chan (Year 12) was second, and Cherng-En (Queenie) Ho (Year 9) third. First in the poetry category was Hanxi (Cicy) Chen (Year 11) for her poetry collection Germaphobia, Bye and I Always Knew I Wasn’t Human. Second place went to Lucy Binnie (Year 12) with Heidi Smith (Year 11) third.

Cyber Security Competition

Cohnor Walsh (Year 12) was eighth in New Zealand at the University of Waikato New Zealand Cyber Security Competition.

Debating

The Junior Debating team of Fraser Walls, Christian Li and Hong Xin Tang (all Year 11) won the Canterbury Schools Debating Council's (CSDC) Secondary School Junior Competition, beating St Margaret’s College in the final 2–1.

At the Junior Regional Debating, StAC 3, Daniel Kenyon, Samuel Hu and Tessa Kerr (all Year 10), coached by Lachlan Hackston (Year 11) were undefeated beating Christ’s College in the final in a 2–1 split decision. Samuel Hu won Best Speaker of the tournament and Tessa Kerr won a Highly Commended Speaker Award.

Lachlan Hackston and Hanxi (Cicy) Chen (both Year 11) were second at the Canterbury Impromptu Debating Competition. Lachlan was also a Highly Commended Speaker.

English

Hudson Blyde and Benjamin Yu (both Year 9) won Elite badges in the Education Perfect English Championship.

Mathematics Competition

Year 8 Mathematics Class 8MATH02 was second in the South Island Rocks Times Tables Competition.

Spelling Bee

In an outstanding achievement, Cong (Zilong) Chen (Year 9) won the National Spelling Bee competition, earning a $5000 prize. Benjamin Yu (Year 9) was one of the runners-up. Teacher, Logan Rae, was one of only four teachers across the country awarded a 2025 Teacher Award at the competition.

Science and Technology Fair

A group of students achieved outstanding results at the Canterbury-Westland Schools Science and Technology Fair. Carter Summerfield (Year 8) received three prizes including Best Year 8 Science Fair Project. Aoife Forsyth and Lana Rogers (both Year 8) received the Canterbury Botanical Society First Prize, with Kangwoo Moon and Ethan Waines (both Year 9) recognised for excellence in experimental design, approach and interpretation in the Year 9–10 category.

UN Ambassador

Alyssa Huang (Year 11) represented St Andrew’s College as part of the United Nations (UN) Youth High School Ambassador Programme for 2025.

Youth Parliament

Hadassah Timo (Year 12) was one of 20 Youth Press Gallery members chosen to participate in the New Zealand Youth Parliament, covering proceedings over three days.