Fife pupil Duncan sits alongside world’ s best in international exams

St Leonards pupil Duncan Bouchard is among the top achievers in the world, after scoring full marks in his exams.

St Andrews boy Duncan achieved a perfect score of 45 – the highest mark possible – in the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma exams.

Out of 170,000 students across the globe, his achievement places him in the top 350 candidates.

The 18-year-old, who was joint head boy at the independent school, will now move on to study civil engineering at Heriot-watt University in Edinburgh.

He hopes to secure a scholarship and annual industrial internships from the Institution of Civil Engineers following an interview in September.

Duncan said he was “delighted” to achieve the impressive results.

He said: “I felt proud of my effort over the last two years and I’m pleased that it has all paid off in the end, especially in French, for which I was surprised to receive the top grade.”

Since receiving the results, he had been inundated with support from proud family and friends.

However, there was classic sibling rivalry between Duncan and his sister, who completed the IB at the school four years ago – achieving a nearperfect score of 44.

Like students across the country, Duncan had to learn from home for a portion of his final years at school.

While it was a difficult experience, he said: “I think in some ways the lockdown helped me focus more on schoolwork, especially the project work which forms a crucial part of the IB.

“However we all missed out on an important social aspect of our lives and it

was difficult not being able to see people in person as often.”

More St Leonards pupils had reason to celebrate after receiving their grades last week for the exams which were sat in May.

Lara Bell, also from St Andrews, achieved an impressive 44 points in the diploma and has secured a spot at University College London to study English.

She is one of around 600 students worldwide to have achieved the near-perfect grade.

The IB results are released in July and the fee-paying school is one of just two schools in the UK to offer the exams.

The school achieved an average of 35 points, out of a possible 45, which is the equivalent of five grade A Highers plus an A grade Advanced Higher.

Mrs Dawn Pembertonhislop, acting head of St Leonards, said: “I am so incredibly proud of this year’s excellent IB results, which are a testament to the hard work and

determination of our students, who have achieved fantastic scores and secured places at top universities.”

Mrs Pemberton-hislop said the pupils had coped “incredibly well” despite the disruption to their final two years of school caused by the coronavirus pandemic

She added: “My warmest congratulations to each and every one of our Year 13 pupils – I know they will go on to achieve even more great things.”

I know they will go on to achieve even more great things

FULL MARKS: High-scoring pupil Duncan Bouchard will now study civil engineering. Picture by Steve Brown.