The school achieved a 100% pass for the fourth year running. Ziev Kazansky was the top pupil, scoring a 91.1% aggregate.
“I’m really excited, it’s very overwhelming,” he said. “Today is my birthday as well, so there was lots of pressure on today. I’m excited about the future.”
Brandon Hareb, who scored 87.1%, said he had been very nervous about the day. “Not only for my marks but also uncertain about what to do now. Now that I’ve got these marks, I know that I can do what I want to.”
Brandon’s advice to the matrics of 2018 is to stay focused on their studies.
“In matric, there are so many things happening, a lot of functions. You look forward to those things, but once they are done, you really have to just graft and concentrate.”
Ziev added that every pupil had their own strengths and weaknesses. “Everyone should be honest about what they can and can’t do. Then they can pick what they do based on that.”
He said it was also important to keep active and do things such as go for walks.
Katya Allan, who scored an 87.6% aggregate, said it was important to find a comfortable place to study “to actually absorb the work better”.
Camps Bay High School principal David de Korte, said he was thrilled with the school’s full marks.
“It’s a testament to the teachers to get everyone really great results,” he said.
The school has also increased its Bachelor’s pass rate from 80.3 to 87%, granting access to university.
Mr De Korte said identifying struggling pupils early in the year and helping them was key to the school’s success.
“We also had some incredible results in particular subjects such as English and drama. There are some things that we have to work at but I think today we are just going to claim very successful results. I’m very proud of the results,” said Mr De Korte
Thirty-two of the Western Cape’s 500 schools had achieved 100% pass rates, and Mr De Korte said he would like to see an overall improvement in the province’s results in years to come.
“You need master teachers who know what they’re doing and absolutely love their work. You need to identify your weak pupils early on,” he said, congratulating the school’s 2017 matric cohort.
Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced the national matric pass rate of 75.1% – up by 2.6% from 72.5% in 2016 – on Thursday January 4, although matrics in the Western Cape only got their results a day later.
The province came third, with a pass rate of 82.8%, down by 3% from 2016 and behind Free State with 86% and Gauteng with 85%.
Acting principal at Sea Point High School Rondine Richards, also said she was delighted with the school’s results: 91.4% pass rate, up from 84.4% the previous year.
“We are very pleased that the results are above 90% and also above the Western Cape overall average.”
Those who had not done as well as they had expected should not lose hope, she said.
“There always is an opportunity to go back and make right. This is by no means the end of the road. If you didn’t succeed this time round, then write the supplementary. If you haven’t succeeded this time round, then dust yourself off and try again. One mustn’t lose heart at this point in time.”
She urged the matrics of 2018 to work hard to get the results they wanted. “Pupils need to realise that matric is not easy, and if you want to receive the results, you need to work hard.” Good Hope Seminary High School received a 90.2% pass rate, down from 100% the previous year.
Herzlia High School, in Vredehoek, maintained its 100% pass rate. St Cyprian’s also received 100%.
However things didn’t go so well at Vista High School in Bo-Kaap. It saw its matric pass rate plummet from 91.4% in 2016 to 63.1% in 2017.
Education MEC Debbie Schäfer congratulated the 2017 matric class.
“While it is always nice to be Number 1, in the Western Cape our focus will remain on whether we have increased the numbers of candidates passing, and the quality of those passes. We are currently analysing the results to determine which schools did not perform well and in which subject areas.”
