50th Jubilee 2006

The College celebrated its 50th Jubilee in 2006. A pictorial history was published at the time and can be downloaded here. (PDF:6mb)

History

DID YOU KNOW THIS ABOUT RANGITOTO COLLEGE?

• The original proposed name for RangitotoCollege was “Murray’s BayHigh School”
• It opened in 1956 and had 180 year 9 and 10 pupils and 13 staff
• Over the 52 years we have had 5 principals – Frank Tucker, Noel Woods, Charles Loretz, Allan Peachey and David Hodge
• The first school magazine “Panorama” was published in 1956 and is still going today
• The first assembly hall was built in 1962 and replaced with an auditorium in 2000
• In 2009 we have 3085 students including 213 international students, 187 teachers, 70 support staff and 15 cleaners
• There are 591 students in Year 9, 608 in Yr 10, 628 in Yr 11, 670 in Yr 12 and 588 in Yr 13
• Students from 62 different countries attend Rangitoto
• There are 12 different curriculum areas/departments in the college
• 6 people on the staff have over 240 years of Rangitoto teaching experience between them
• There are over 800 lessons taught each day (e.g. 284 in Science)
• Average class size across the school is 24 students per class
• There are 21 Year 9 Tutor Groups, 21 Yr 10, 26 Yr 11, 29 Yr 12 and 23 Yr 13
• Student services available are Tutor Teachers, Deans (13, including 2 International Deans), Guidance Staff (4), Careers Staff (2), Health Centre (3 nurses), Physiotherapists,  Academic Tutors,  International Office, Sports Administrators, Music and Performing Arts co-ordinators, Gateway programme to help students transition into employment, Maths Problem Clinic, English Problem Clinic 
• School “Houses” are - Freyberg, Hillary, Mansfield, Rutherford, Lydiard and Te Kanawa
• The college gets broadband delivery across the fibre optic network that is used by the 195 laptops in the school and 15 rooms or pods with computers in them for student use
• Each day we download more than 13 Gigabytes of data from the internet
• The library has over 20,000 books and an extensive magazine collection as well as 2 computer areas and 3 reading rooms
• Our library sees more ‘customers’ in a day than the East Coast Bays Library
• More than 50 students volunteer their time in the library that is open from 8.15 am to 4.15 pm
• RangitotoCollege has an annual operating budget of $24.2 million
• The school expects about $500,000 from parent school donations this year
• The College site covers 31 hectares
• Head Boy and Head Girl for 2010 are 

• By the end of Year 13, 94% of students have University Entrance Literacy and 98% have Numeracy
• At all levels Rangitoto gained double the national average for excellences
• Rangitoto College has more than two times the national percentage for Endorsed Certificates for Merit and Excellence (candidate gains 50 or more merit or excellence credits across all subjects) in NCEA at all 3 levels (Year 11, 12 and 13)
• Percentage pass rates for each level of NCEA are 82% get Level 1, 88% get Level 2 and 76% get Level 3
• RangitotoCollege students gained 68 subject scholarships at Level 3 (Year 13)
• We teach 4 different languages, have 3 language assistants, have taken 8 trips to Japan, 12 to French speaking countries and 2 to Spanish speaking countries
• 70 different courses are offered at Rangitoto over the 5 yr levels with 54 available at Year 12
• Students have been awarded Rhodes, Rutherford, Girdlers, Princeton and Fulbright Scholarships
• 7 of Rangitoto’s 2006 graduating year were accepted for AucklandMedicalSchool in 2008
• Rangitoto has 2 “Academic” tutor teachers to mentor students heavily involved in co-curricular activities at very high levels that necessitate them being absent from school for periods of time      

• We have 40 different music, dance and drama (and combinations of these) co-curricular groups involving about 1000 students
• This includes a School Musical/Show/Drama every year, Orchestras, Concert Bands, Rock Bands, Jazz Combos, Choirs, Dance Troupes, Stage Challenge, Theatresports, Stage Lighting and Sound, Shakespeare (Senior and Junior)
• 420 students do music tuition during school hours with 36 itinerant music teachers
• We have a passionate Kapa Haka group that has performed creditably at past Polyfests and who are regularly involved in many school activities
• Various groups from other cultures perform at different times of the year e.g. Lion Dance, Korean Fan Dance, Chinese Traditional Dance 
• Our Future Problem Solving groups have represented NZ at the International finals in the USA for 4 out of the past 5 years that we have been involved, this year we won 5 awards including 2 firsts.
• RFM radio – the school radio run by students
• Debating – many teams involved in a range of competitions
• In 2008 students from the College won a range of prestigious competitions including being highly placed first in the National Secondary School Barbershop Quartet and Barbershop Chorus, named in the top 5 of the Secondary Schools Song Writing Competition, Fundamentals Choir was given a PLATINUM Medal at the National Big Sing Finale, many Firsts at NZ and South Pacific Dancesport Competitions
• Student Reps and other senior students organise concerts e.g. BIG Lunch Out and BIG Lunch In, “Dancing With the Staff”

• 43 different sports are played at the college and we have 46 Teacher In Charge of sports
• We offer a high performance programme in 9 sports, triathlon will be the 10^th sport in 2009
• 6 people are employed in the Sports Department to administer sport at the college
• The largest sport is netball with 45 teams and approximately 400 girls
• During the winter there are about 150 teams across 7 sports involving 1400 students
• Students have access to fulltime physiotherapists onsite at the college
• Our students broke numerous school records at the school swimming sports this year
• Weights Room available for student use all year round at lunchtimes and before and after school
• We have an international Hockey Turf and an indoor cricket bowling facility
• We own the land that the Sovereign Stadium is on giving our students access to an international running track
• In 2007 there were 38 NZ Reps attending the College and there are 32 NZ Reps so far this year
• On 1 July, 2008, the College also had 1 X World Champion, 1 X Oceania Champion and 12 X NZ Champions in various sports
• Watch this space for 2009!

• There are many leadership opportunities for students e,g. student representatives, House Captains, various committees like the Multicultural Committee, coaching and mentoring younger students in both cultural and sporting activities
• We have a range of Clubs that consider national and global issues - Amnesty International, Greenpeace, World Vision/40 Hour Famine, Environmental Club (named as a FairTrade School), Random Acts of Kindness Group and SADD
• Duke of Edinburgh
• The school’s Blood Days each year collect about 245 units of blood (the highest for any school).
• School-wide Mufti Days are held each term for various charities chosen by the Student Reps
• Trips to Cambodia to help build houses
• Multicultural Committee
• Many students volunteer to be collectors for charity

THANK YOU FOR COMING TO THE OPEN DAY