Established 1917 Rector Christine Leighton Phone +64 3-940 2000 School roll 1422 (July 2016) Socio economic decile 10 | Ministry of Education Institution no. 318 Website stac.school.nz Founded 1917 Ministry of education institution number 318 | |
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Type Private, fully reg. (Years 1-13) Motto Fides et Patria
"Faith and Country" Address 347 Papanui Rd, Strowan, Christchurch 8052, New Zealand Profiles | ||
St. Andrew's College Christchurch, New Zealand is a private, co-educational school that enrolls from Pre School-Year 13. It was founded in 1917 and it is the only independent, co-educational primary and secondary school in New Zealand's South Island. Although now a fully co-educational school, it was formerly an all-boys school. It became fully co-educational in 2001. St Andrew's, (known as StAC for short), is currently headed by Rector Christine Leighton.
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History
St Andrew’s College was founded in 1917 in the Scottish Presbyterian tradition of the Christian faith.
The School began in humble fashion, with just 19 boys and four teachers, driven by the determination of the Reverend Thompson, whose driving ambition was to ‘educate the sons of the Presbyterian and Scottish community of Canterbury.’
StAC had three boarding houses for the 165 boarders of years 9 to 13: MacGibbon (years 9 to 11) and Rutherford (years 11 to 13) for boys, and Thompson (years 9 to 13) for girls. Boarding facilities were damaged in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake; as a result, the boarders have lived in local motels until the new boarding houses were opened at the start of 2013. Thompson and Rutherford houses have been demolished and replaced with brand new state of art boarding facilities while McGibbon House has been refurbished and strengthened. Boarding used to be available for year 7 and 8 students, but is no longer provided.
On 31 October 2008, the students and teachers of St Andrew's College set a world record for the largest school mass dance with a recital of the YMCA.
Plans
The 22 February 2011 Christchurch earthquake severely damaged the school chapel and forced the closure of the school arts block and Strowan house, which both sustained some structural damage, however most of the schools buildings were relatively undamaged, and the arts block has since been repaired and strengthened. Strowan house has now re-opened, and the chapel is being demolished at some stage in the future with new plans already in place and Architectural designs confirmed. In late 2014 Erwin house was demolished to make room for a second gymnasium.