Grahamstown’s top matric achiever is Kingswood College pupil Christopher Bradshaw.  He is modest about his outstanding results. He says about his high scores in all his subjects “It’s more than working hard, it’s about understanding your work. Once you understand things, it all falls into place”. Christopher’s results, 8 distinctions, with a 97% score for Mathematics Paper 3, 94% for Mathematics, 93% for History and 91 % for Life Sciences placed him in the top 5% of IEB learners in 6 or more subjects. 

Christopher is no nerdy academic. He’s a keen soccer player and also achieved Colours for squash during his matric year. While his interests lie in maths and physics, he is equally at home with the humanities, having achieved well in History, 85% for English and 82% for French. He was placed in the top 20 achievers in the 2009 English Olympiad, and also found time to play the trombone in the Kingswood Concert Band. 

Christopher is hoping for entrance to a top university in the US to study maths and physics from September. His chances are good considering that he scored in the top 1% of world wide test takers in the recent SAT tests for admission to universities in the US. He had perfect scores for maths and physics and in the high 90s for Literacy. In the meantime, Christopher will go to Rhodes University to start his studies in maths and physics. His mother, Dr Karen Bradshaw is a lecturer in IT at Rhodes. 

Christopher came to Kingswood College in Grade 9, moving to Grahamstown from Zimbabwe. “It’s a good place to be at school” he says of the town. His friends say he is “chilled” and “laid back”. Kingswood headmaster, Jon Trafford said, “Christopher has been a top academic throughout his school career. He deserves special recognition for his quite exceptional results. We’re very proud of him.”