Riccarton High School


Riccarton High School is a state co-educational secondary school located in Upper Riccarton, a suburb of Christchurch, New Zealand. With a roll of students, it is one of the five largest secondary schools in Christchurch.

History

The school opened in 1958 with an initial roll of 142 pupils and 8 teachers. The school's roll increased over time, reaching its height in 1974 when it had some 1,149 pupils on its books. With the opening of Hornby High School in 1976, Riccarton's roll began to drop. The lowest roll since 1974 was in 1986 when the school had dropped to just 612 pupils. Since then, the school has increased its numbers, stabilising at about 950 pupils a year.

Academics

As a state school, Riccarton High School follows the New Zealand Curriculum. In Years 11 to 13, students complete the National Certificate of Educational Achievement, the main secondary school qualification in New Zealand.

Sport, music and culture

Each year the school engages in a Winter and Summer sports exchange with Kaikorai Valley College from Dunedin, with the most successful school taking home the respective shield.
Some 40 clubs, sports, music and cultural groups are currently on offer.
Riccarton High School has two sister schools in Japan. They are Takefu Higashi High School senior school in the Fukui Prefecture and Sakai Machi in Gunma Prefecture.

Facilities

Riccarton High School is primarily constructed in the late-1950s "Nelson Single Storey" design, characterised by single-storey classroom blocks with six classrooms arranged in an H shape and toilet and cloakrooms on one side. Riccarton has three of these blocks: B, S and T blocks. The school also has two 1960s "Nelson 2H" blocks, E/F and G/H, which are two-storey versions of the Nelson Single Storey blocks.
In 2004 the school entered into a "partnership" with the Christchurch City Council to build a large school/community joint-use library and cafe at the school.