Macleans College

History

The school was opened in 1980 by then Governor General Sir David Beattie with an initial roll of 199 students. The first principal was Colin Prentice, who later became director of World Vision in New Zealand, followed by his deputy Allan McDonald in 1989. In 2000, upon McDonald's retirement, Byron J Bentley, who holds a Master of Arts, became principal. In 2015, the school auditorium was renamed the 'Colin Prentice Auditorium' in honour of the late founding principal after his passing.

The school is named after the MacLean family. Robert and Every Maclean immigrated to New Zealand from Scotland, and they owned the land in Howick. The family farmed the areas of land that is the school's current location, as well as the surrounding government controlled reserves.

Whanau House system

Upon admission, pupils are placed into one of the eight Whanau houses in Macleans College (Batten, Mansfield, Rutherford, Kupe, Hillary, Te Kanawa, Snell and Upham). These houses are named after significant New Zealander's, and the traits and achievements of this person influences the Whanau's environment, charity and what it encourages. The selection is random, unless the student has or had any sibling or parent attend the school wherein the student has an option to be enrolled in the same house, or be randomly placed in any of the other seven.

The Whanau House system at Macleans divides the school into houses of about 300 students each, with two form classes of 30 or so students for each year level, all from the same house. The Whanau system had previously been trialled at Penrose High School (now One Tree Hill College) by modifying existing buildings, but Macleans College was the first state school in New Zealand to be purpose-built around the system.

The original houses were Kupe, Hillary, Te Kanawa and Rutherford, although Hillary was rebuilt and reopened on 29 October 1992 after it burnt down on 13 October 1991. Te Kanawa house was officially opened by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa herself, hence why it was opened much later than the other original houses. More houses have been added as the roll has increased, with the latest addition being Upham, which was opened in 2003. The school has a roll of over 2,500 students.

The school is currently in the process of rebuilding all of its previous buildings due to leaks found and poor original construction. The school is in consideration with the Ministry of Education about all of these rebuilds. As of date (November 2015) The Art Block, The Music Block, Batten House, Rutherford House, Kupe House, Hillary House, Te Kanawa House, Snell House, The Staffroom, The Resource Room and The Student Advisory Service have all been completed, with Upham House currently in progress and Mansfield House and The Technology and Sciences Blocks scheduled for the upcoming years. The school has also recently added an astroturf for sports such as football and rugby next to the pre-existing tennis courts located across the school fields from Macleans. There are plans to add a block of changing rooms, showers and facilities around this area in the upcoming years.

Uniform

The school uniform has undergone many changes since its founding. Currently, junior and senior students are distinguished by the pale blue shirts worn by juniors, and the navy and white striped shirts worn by senior students. Navy shorts and trousers are worn by boys, with navy skirts (ankle length for senior girls in the winter, and knee length for all girls in the summer) and Maclean tartan kilts worn by girls (the tartan skirts are only worn by junior girls in the winter terms). Shoes include brown Roman sandals in summer and black lace-up shoes in winter (but can also be worn in summer). The school jersey is blue and v-necked with the school emblem on the left-hand side. Badges are sewn onto these jumpers when received by a student for representing the school in a premier team, such as in sports, drama, debating or music. School jackets, scarves, hats and schoolbags are also available, but not compulsory. For formal events, a blue striped blazer is worn with a school tie and long skirts or trousers. Senior students have the option to mix summer and winter uniforms throughout the year (apart from sandals only being worn in the summer and only with shorts or short skirts), whilst junior students must adhere to the assigned summer and winter uniforms.

The physical education uniform consists of blue shorts with the Macleans logo on the left leg, and a short-sleeved polo shirt in a student's house colour.

Setting and buildings

Macleans College is located in Macleans Park, the largest passive reserve in the Howick/Pakuranga district. Due to its sloping terrain, the school has wide views of the adjacent Eastern Beach.

Each Whanau House has a one-storey building (with the exception of Batten, which has two due to being on a slope). This is due to a ban of buildings of over one storey in the whole Bucklands Beach-Eastern Beach area due to the scenery. Each house contains around 5 classrooms and 1 science lab and sometimes a computer lab, and often several associated prefabs (Kupe, Mansfield, Te Kanawa, Batten). Each Whanau House building also has a large central indoor commons area, which, along with being a general purpose socialising space, is used for house assemblies, lunch eating, and various co-curricular activities. Hillary, Kupe, Rutherford and Te Kanawa were built to a common design plan, known as the Whanau plan or S80 plan. Classroom blocks nearly identical to these were also built at Penrose High School and at Mountainview High School in Timaru. However these buildings have since been rebuilt according to new plan allowing for less classrooms and larger open commons spaces.

The school also contains specialised non-house associated Science and Technology, Computing, Graphics, Art, Music, and Engineering buildings, along with the large Barbara Kendall gymnasiums and a smaller Collin Prentice auditorium for productions and performance.

Demographics

At the May 2014 Education Review Office (ERO) review of the school, Macleans College had 2271 students, not including 304 international students. Fifty-three percent of students were male and 47 percent were female. The school had an Asian majority with 54 percent of students identifying as such, including 31 percent as Chinese and 11 percent as Indian. Forty percent of students identified as European, including 27 percent as New Zealand European (Pākehā). Māori made up three percent and Pacific Islanders make up one percent of the roll.

Macleans College has a socio-economic decile of 9 (step Q), meaning it draws its school community from areas of low to moderately-low socioeconomic disadvantage when compared to other New Zealand schools. This changed from decile 10 (funding step Z) at the beginning of 2015, as part of the nationwide review of deciles following the 2013 census.

International students

The college takes in fee paying foreign students, mainly of Asian ethnicity. As they pay more than NZ$14,000 each per year (not including pay for accommodation, which is usually homestays with current students), they constitute a significant part of the school's income.

Qualifications

In 2013, 97.6 percent of students leaving Macleans College held at least NCEA Level 1 or IGCSE, 95.5 percent held at least NCEA Level 2 or AS, and 86.2 percent held at least University Entrance standard. This is compared to 85.2%, 74.2%, and 49.0% respectively for all students nationally.

Co-curricular activities

The school's unofficial co-curricular guide for students, although not extensive and slightly outdated, includes 28 sporting codes, 13 academic activities, 6 drama activities, 14 musical activities, 18 cultural activities and 24 clubs as part of the larger 'Intercultural Club'. Each student is required to participate in at least one long term co-curricular activity per year.

Instrumental groups

Macleans has one of the strongest instrumental music programmes in the region. In the annual KBB Music Festival which is held for secondary schools in the greater Auckland district, the Symphony Orchestra has been ranked the number one secondary school orchestra for the years of 2008 to 2012 inclusive, and 2014. The Concert Band has been ranked number one for the years of 2009 to 2013 inclusive, while the Chamber Orchestra was ranked number one for the years of 2010 and 2011. In 2015 the Concert Band won the most outstanding award while the Macleans Symphony Orchestra achieved gold in the annual KBB music festival.

Singing groups

The choir has qualified on a national level, gaining a silver in 2010 and 2011 and a gold in 2012 at the Big Sing National Finale. In 2011, the barbershop quartet gained second place nationwide while the girls' chorus placed fourth. In 2012, the barbershop quartet were placed first, winning the national title.

Musical theatre

Macleans College also has an annual musical production performance, performing famous pieces such as Les Misérables (2013), The Mikado (2014), Into the Woods (2015) and 'The Addams Family' (2016).

Notable alumni