5 March 2026 / Category : School

Celebrating our 2025 Academic Success

Rangi Ruru is celebrating another year of academic excellence with impressive 2025 NCEA and Scholarship results, and dozens of university scholarship offers secured by our Year 13 leavers.

Across NCEA Levels 1, 2 and 3, Rangi Ruru students achieved well above the national averages:

Level 1 – 99% (National Average – 72.1%)
Level 2 – 96% (National Average – 72.7%)
Level 3 – 98% (National Average – 70.4%)
University Entrance – 97% (National Average – 49.9%)

Principal Tracy Herft says the results are a testament not only to the hard work and dedication of ākonga to achieve their academic goals, but also to the school’s teaching staff.

“The vital guidance of kaiako empowers each student to be their best throughout their entire learning journey at Rangi Ruru,” she says. “Beyond our small class sizes, specialist subject teachers and Personal Development Plans which track student’s holistic achievement.

“To see such high achievement across the board demonstrates the exponential impact of a personalised approach to education where each girl is able to receive targeted support.”

Ms Herft also acknowledges the invaluable support of our wider whānau and community.

New Zealand Scholarship

Rangi Ruru students also received 28 New Zealand Scholarships—assessments designed to test a student’s deep subject understanding, high-level critical thinking and application of this knowledge to complex situations.

These results include two Outstanding Performance accolades; one achievement by a Year 11, and four by Year 12 students. See the full list of Scholarship recipients at the end of this article.

Deputy Principal, Juliet Collins, says scholarship exams are a unique example of deep understanding in a subject.

“The wonderful thing for these students is that the scholarship award does not rely primarily on content knowledge or technical skill, but on higher-order thinking: critical analysis, the application of complex concepts in unfamiliar contexts, synthesis, and deep understanding. “As such, it is a tribute to the students for deep extended study, wide reading, and strong social and contextual understanding. As a kura, we celebrate these students’ success.”

University Scholarships

The assessment results build on the more than 75 university scholarships achieved by Rangi Ruru’s 2025 Year 13 leavers. The offers—from domestic and international institutions—had a combined value of more than $2.4 million.

Offers included to the Universities of Charlston, Tennessee, Washington and Sydney. As well as offers recognising leadership, academic excellence, Māori excellence, and study in the fields of engineering and agriculture.

“University scholarships tend to recognise excellence and endeavour outside of purely academic results, and it is wonderful to see the dispositions we nurture at Rangi Ruru—such as leadership, citizenship and pursuing co-curricular passions—opening up these significant post-secondary school pathways,” says Ms Herft.

“I think I can speak for our whole kura community when I say that we all look forward to cheering from the sidelines as these mana wāhine take their next steps in their lives beyond the school gates.”