Rangitoto College


Rangitoto College is a state coeducational secondary school, located on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. Serving Years 9 to 13, Rangitoto has a school roll of as of making it the largest "brick-and-mortar" school in New Zealand. Patrick Gale is the current principal.

Location

Rangitoto College is located in Mairangi Bay, on the East Coast Bays on Auckland's North Shore. The easternmost field as well as many of the classrooms on the eastern side of the school have a view of the Rangitoto Channel as well as Rangitoto Island.

History

Rangitoto College opened in February 1956, with an initial roll of 180 Year 9 and 10 students. A block and D block are the school's two original buildings; these are standard school buildings of the "1950s Single Storey" type, with long single-storey blocks of classrooms orientated east-west with a corridor connecting the classrooms on the south side.

Enrolment

Like many secondary schools in Auckland, Rangitoto operates an enrolment scheme to help curb roll numbers and prevent overcrowding. Rangitoto's enrolment zone, in which students residing are automatically entitled to be enrolled without rejection, covers approximately, and includes Browns Bay, Campbells Bay, Mairangi Bay, Murrays Bay, Pinehill, Rothesay Bay, Sunset North, and Windsor Park, and parts of Meadowood and Rosedale east of the Auckland Northern Motorway. Students residing outside the zone are accepted as roll places allow per the enrollment scheme order of preference and secret ballot.
At the September 2015 Education Review Office review of the school, the school had 2871 students enrolled, including 258 international students. The school roll's gender composition was evenly split between male and female, and its ethnic composition was 45% New Zealand European, 11% Chinese, 6% African, 7% Māori, 2% South East Asian, 1% Indian, 1% Pacific Islanders, 12% other European, 11% other Asian, and 3% other.
Rangitoto College has a socio-economic decile rating of 10, meaning it draws its school community from areas of highest socio-economic strata when compared to other New Zealand schools.

Recent principals

In mid-2005, principal Allan Peachey stood down in order to stand as a National Party candidate for election to Parliament. Alison Cleland took over as principal in the interim. As a result of Peachey's election as the Member of Parliament for the Tamaki electorate, David Hodge, a former student at Rangitoto College, was appointed as Principal in 2006, but left in 2017. Patrick Gale is the current principal.

Academic performance

Rangitoto College is a decile 10 school, meaning that, as the ERO puts it, Rangitoto draws its students from an area of 'least socio-economic disadvantage'. The data show that it performs at, or above, the average level for decile 10 schools nationally. Like other decile 10 schools, Rangitoto performs better than schools from areas of greater socio-economic disadvantage.
Compared to the national average, Rangitoto students achieved very good results in the 2008 New Zealand Scholarship exams. .
Prior to Bursary being replaced by the National Certificate of Educational Achievement Rangitoto had at least one student recognised as New Zealand's top scholar in a subject between 2001 and 2003; in 2003 Rangitoto had three four top-scholars including Top all-round Female Māori Scholar. . In 2006 a Rangitoto College student was named "Top Scholar in New Zealand" for the subject of history in 2006 based on the NCEA framework.
In 2013, 94.4 percent of students leaving Rangitoto College held at least NCEA Level 1, 89.5 percent held at least NCEA Level 2, and 76.3 percent held at least University Entrance. This is compared to 85.2%, 74.2%, and 49.0% respectively for all students nationally.

Notable alumni

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