Mount Albert Grammar School

History

Mount Albert Grammar was founded in 1922 as a subsidiary of Auckland Grammar School, but now the two schools are governed separately. Mount Albert Grammar School was originally boys only, but in 2000 opened its doors to girls as well. Junior classes (years 9 and 10) are mostly single-sex while senior classes (years 11 to 13) are all co-educational.

There have been a number of headmasters since the opening of the school, Frederick Gamble (1922–1946), William Caradus (1946–1954), Murray Nairn (1954–1969), Maurice Hall (1970–1988) Gregory Taylor (1988–2006, the first Albertian to become Headmaster) Dale Burden (2006–2015) and the current prinicpal, Patrick Drumm (2016–).

The school has a boys' boarding hostel called School House on site. It has full-time accommodation for up to 107 students during school terms. The school house was opened in 1927 and has been running as a full-time hostel since then.

The School's Latin motto is Per Angusta Ad Augusta, which means "Through Hardship to Glory". The school hymn, sung at all formal assemblies, was written by a student, J. A. W. Bennett, in 1928.

2015 Pornographic email event

In October 2015, an email containing a pornographic image was sent to all the school's 2,700 students after the school's email database was hacked by one of the school's students. The email database was immediately shut down and an investigation was started. The school laid a complaint with police and sought the assistance of the Department of Internal Affairs.

Academia

Mt Albert Grammar School pupils participate in various forms of academia, from year 9 to year 13. There is a wide range of individual subjects available, all of which fit into their respective departments: Agricultural Science, Horticulture, Art, Commerce, Dance and Drama, English, ESOL, Languages, Mathematics, Media Studies, Music, Physical Education, Science, Social Science and Technology.

The New Zealand Education Review Office has consistently commended the school on its outstanding academic achievements: "Student achievement in NCEA is higher than national averages and is considerably higher than the averages for other similar schools." In 2015, 93.8 percent of students leaving Mount Albert Grammar held at least NCEA Level 1, 87.7 percent held at least NCEA Level 2, and 67.8 percent held at least NCEA Level 3. This is compared to 88.4%, 79.1%, and 52.8% respectively for all students nationally.

In Scholarship, New Zealand’s top secondary school academic award, MAGS has regularly placed in the top 10 schools in the country.

Sports

Sports is a strong tradition at Mount Albert Grammar, and school regularly wins Auckland and New Zealand titles. So far in 2014, MAGS has defended its National Championship titles in Boys' Softball and Girls' Futsal, and aims to defend its other National titles in Premier Netball, First XI Girls' Football, Girls' Lacrosse and Girls' Touch.

MAGS also holds Auckland titles in First XI Boys' Cricket, First XI Boys' and Girls' Football, Boys' Softball, Canoe Polo, Baseball, Premier Netball, Girls' Touch, Girls' Lacrosse, and a number of Athletics records. In 2007 and 2009 MAGS won all the major Auckland titles in Rugby, Soccer and Netball. The First XI girls football and the Premier Girls Basketball also won their first Auckland Championships in 2009.

The Boys' First XI Football team has a record unequalled by any school in New Zealand, winning the Auckland Premier League championship 38 times since 1928, most recently in 2013.

The First XV Rugby team has played since 1922 when it joined the Auckland Secondary Schools Rugby competition, winning the Championship in 1924 and 1925. Since then it has won the Auckland title 19 times, most recently in 2010. MAGS also won the New Zealand Championship in 1938, 1982 and 2010.

The Premier Netball team has a record unequalled in New Zealand, winning the National Championship in 2012 and 2013, the Auckland Championship for the past five years in a row (2009–2013), has been unbeaten since 2012 and lost only three games since 2009.

MAGS also offers a list of other sports, and is experiencing a resurgence in its rowing programme. Once considered a top rowing school in the country and an eight-time winner of the Maadi Cup through the 1950s and 1960s, the sport disappeared from the school for nearly 30 years until 2009, when it was revived by group of the school's former rowers. In 2014 MAGS won its first Maadi medal of its modern rowing era, a bronze in the Girls' U16 Double.

In 2008, one sports staff member and a parent coach were suspended by the schools' sport body College Sport and nine students who had transferred to the school were prevented from playing by rules designed to prevent poaching of young players. As a result, the school implemented a sporting Code of Conduct for all students, staff and coaches. This ultimately led to the dismissal of Director of Football, Kevin Fallon.

Mt Albert Aquatic Centre

The Mt Albert Aquatic Centre was developed as a joint project between Mount Albert Grammar School and the Auckland City Council. It was officially opened by the Prime Minister of New Zealand in 1998. The facility contains a 25-metre competition pool with depths measuring from 1.2 metres to 3 metres, and a leisure pool that features wave motion and a water slide. The complex consists of other features visited by the public often. However, in 2016 the pool was noted to be unsafe due to its vulnerability to earthquakes. The pool is set to be either fixed or demolished in the next ten years.

Mount Albert Grammar School Farm

Since 1933 Mount Albert Grammar School has had a 10.8 ha farm adjacent to its school site in the middle of Auckland city. It is a fully working model farm, home to sheep, pigs, rabbits, goats, cattle and poultry, cared for by a farm manager who lives on site. The land is owned by the ASB Bank, which in 2013 extended the school's lease costing 1 dollar every year for 99 years, taking the ownership through to 2112.

Students are able to study Agricultural Science from Year 10 onwards, and also travel to farms and agricultural training centres for day trips and camps. They attend Field Days at Mystery Creek each year and some students are selected to assist in the agricultural area of the Auckland Easter Show.

As well as a classroom the farm has a one-stand wool shed with wool-handling facilities, pens to hold 150 sheep overnight, a two-stand walk-through milking shed with milking plant, an implement shed and a unit for small animals.

Observatory

The school is one of a few schools in New Zealand with an active observatory and possesses a telescope open to students and the public occasionally. Completed in 2008, the observatory has a Meade Instruments LX200R 12-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain f/10 telescope. The observatory uses an SBIG ST7XME CCD camera for imaging and photometry.

The observatory is used for both school education and amateur research.

Notable alumni

Notable alumni include:

Academia

Art

Government

Industry

Law

Music

Public service

Religion

Science