Mairehau High School

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Mairehau High School
Motto	Mairetia i te matauranga Be fragrant with wisdom
Type	State Co-educational Secondary (years 9-13)
Year established	1961
Address	Hills Road, Christchurch, New Zealand
Coordinates
Principal	Harry Romana
School roll	586
Socio-economic decile (10 is highest)	4^[1]
Ministry of Education Institution no.	320
Website	www.mairehau.school.nz

Mairehau High School is a school in Christchurch, New Zealand, taking its name from the suburb Mairehau. The school is located at the northeast end of the suburb, near to Shirley, thus forming a coeducational alternative to Shirley Boys' High School, and Avonside Girls' High School.

The school is currently undergoing redevelopment plans, which will take place over the next several years. The modern developments will accommodate the expanding role numbers, and be a great improvement from the current classroom buildings. The new design will be based around a set of one storey buildings, with the two main blocks (based on the Nelson Plan School Buildings) being demolished entirely.

Mr Harry Romana is the current Principal of the school, and he follows in the footsteps of Headmasters the late Mr A.B. (Bruce) Ryan, Mr Gary Jeffery, Miss Jillian Ussher, and Mr Neil Lancaster.

Mairehau High School opened on February 1, 1961, having been constructed on the advice of the Department of Statistics (now Statistics New Zealand).

1 Basketball
2 Modernisation and Upgrade of School Buildings and Facilities
3 History
4 School Facilities
5 PDRC
6 Notes
7 External links

[edit] Basketball

Mairehau High School has a proud history of secondary school Basketball.

During the 1970s the Senior Boys' Basketball team won three consecutive National Secondary School championships (1973,74,75). Throughout the 1970s Mairehau continued to establish a healthy reputation for competitive Basketball with the Senior Girls team winning five consecutive National titles from 1972 to 1976. Under the guidance of the at times controversial coach, Kerry Williams, the school made its mark in Christchurch as the place to be on Friday evenings as teams competed in weekly competitions.

The 1980s saw Mairehau High School Basketball evolve into a club team that began competing in local competitions. At a school level the participation in Basketball was inconsistent throughout the late eighties and early nineties.

During the 1990’s the school fell from the heady heights of Basketball success two decades earlier and focused its efforts on a small number of players competing in the Canterbury School Sport local competition. In 1995 the Senior Boys team won the Friday evening Open division 1 secondary schools competition.

2006 saw the return of Mairehau High School Basketball to the premier division Canterbury Basketball Association, under 20 competition. During this season the boys team competed in the regional tournament premiership qualifiers, finishing 12th. At the end of the 2006 season BBNZ announced the establishment of the “A” division National Championships to be inaugurated in 2007. This “A” division targets schools with pupil rolls below 600. Qualifiers for the division “A” regional qualifying premierships, took place in Ashburton from the 28th to 31st of August 2007, with teams from across the South Island competing for a top six national qualifying position.

After completing the tournament week in Ashburton, the 2007 Senior Boys team finished 5th, ensuring an entry to the National championships to be held in Christchurch during the first week of the term 3 school holidays (September 21-24th, 2007).

At the National Championships the team placed a credible 5th. With four wins and four losses. Ending the season with a 13 wins to 26 losses.

The Senior Boys A squad for 2007 are:

Tim Warner-Dawson (G)
Cameron Warner-Dawson (F/G)
Andrew Johns (C)
Nicholas Vincent (F)
Junior Oti (G)
Jordan Plato (C)
Lee Todd (G)
Micheal Slack (F)
Craig Duncan (F)
Dion Maw (F/G)
Hunia Manuel (F/G)
Zibin Li (G)
Jason Myburgh (G)

Coach: Kaylib Gorrie Assistant Coach: Abdi Yusuf Manager: Paul Johns Assistant Manager: Mohamed Mohamed Statistician: David Gorrie Chaperone: Salah Gorrie

Image at: http://www.oldfriends.co.nz/InstitutionPhotoView.aspx?id=95149

[edit] Modernisation and Upgrade of School Buildings and Facilities

The school is currently undergoing a re-construction, demolishing and building three new classroom blocks. During the end of 2007, two storey Archer block was demolished, making way for the final 2 classrooms adjoining the New Block (yet to be named). The other two storey Tennant block will be demolished and a new block of classrooms will be built to replace it.

[edit] History

Originally when the school was built, prefabricated buildings were mainly used onsite until roll numbers increased, requiring more larger and longer lasting buildings to be built, although there are still three of the original prefabs onsite, one of which is now used as the Common Room for year thirteen students. The Tennant block was opened in July of 1962, and still serves its purpose as a double storey 12 classroom Nelson Plan based block.

The Archer block was opened in February of 1963 but several years later was damaged by a fire. This same year the tuckshop was built but was replaced in mid 2007.

On the eleventh of October 1967 the school gymnasium was opened with Charles Upham V.C. a special guest speaker at the ceremony. In 1969 the Ford block is was opened and the Cartwright Block and Staffroom were extended. This same year the Walter Library is opened. In the early 1980s, the Ryan Block (Science Laboratories) and the Music Suite were opened. In 1985 the Physically Disabled unit is opened.

[edit] School Facilities

Five science laboratories
Music, art and drama suites
Food technology room and Textiles technology room
Maori studies Whare
Materials technology (metal and wood) workshops
Computer-based graphic design suite
A careers transition centre
A gymnasium
An international students' room
Five computer suites
A well stocked library

[edit] PDRC

The Physical Disabilities Resource Centre (PDRC) is a centre which provides an extensive range of educational programmes and support for students whose prime disability is physical. It is known nationally for its skill in providing specifically for the needs of this group of secondary aged students regardless of their academic ability.

Professional services currently on site include teachers trained in Special Teaching Needs, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Speech Language Therapy. Support staff include Special Education Assistants and Teacher Aides who attend to care needs and provide support appropriate to the educational needs of each student.