| Mount Roskill Grammar School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Frost Road, Mt Roskill, Auckland, New Zealand |
|
| Information | |
| Type | State co-educational secondary (Year 9-13) |
| Motto | Sursum To the Heights |
| Established | 1954 |
| Ministry of Education Institution no. | 74 |
| Principal | Greg Watson |
| School roll | 2,266 [1] |
| Socio-economic decile | 4 |
| Website | MRGS |
Mount Roskill Grammar is a secondary school in the suburb of Mount Roskill, Auckland, officially opened in 1954. The school has students of over 70 different nationalities including approximately 200 International students. The school has been noted by media for its rising academic success and proving that wealth doesn't always influence grades.
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The school has had several structural improvements, such as the construction of new buildings such as the Science Block, the Maclean Centre, T-Block, renovation of H-Block (including the Year 13 Common Room - a room with lockers, kitchen appliances, and recreation features dedicated to final year students), and most recently the new gymnasium and classrooms. At the end of 2009, the new Pastoral Care Centre has been built and will open 2010. Rebuilding of the school's C-Block was started and has finished in the late 2010.
As of 2009, Mount Roskill Grammar School has 8 houses, namely Baxter, Blake, Hillary, Mansfield, Ngata, Rutherford, Savage and Sheppard. However this is set to change in 2010; 5 new houses have been created and have been named temporarily after the first 5 colours of the spectrum - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green And Blue House names were meant to be chosen at the end of Term 1 of 2010, after students have had their input but so far no names have been decided. Junior students:From the start of the year students will be placed into house groups through their core class groups. For students in year 9 (2009) there will be some change to their form class groups. Students in year 10 (2009) will remain with their existing form class groups Senior students:Students in year 11-12 (2009) will remain with their existing form class groups
The school has a very proud academic record, with top scholarship results comparable to other higher-decile schools in Auckland. Mount Roskill Grammar School has been described by the New Zealand Herald in 2007 as the "best public school in New Zealand".[2] In 2009 Metro Magazine has also ranked MRGS as the top school in Auckland, saying "Mt Roskill is not uniquely gifted; it has to work hard to get the results it does. But it was in the top 10 for every indicator we looked at, and usually it was first or second. In general its academic results were what you would expect of a decile-9 school.".[3]
Mt Roskill Grammar School's head prefects for 2011 are Joseph Windsor, Manasi Deshpande, Audrey Tay and Warren Duncan [4]
The school has 8 computer labs [5] catering for students from Year 9-13. Mount Roskill Grammar operates under a strict contract, which every student signs, so that these technologies are not abused. Mount Roskill Grammar is also one of the schools participating in the Phase 2 of the Beacon Practice from GIF Technology Education initiative.[6]
iLearn is an online learning centre powered by Moodle provided by Mount Roskill Grammar School for their students.[7] The material available is a mixture of videos, word documents and other miscellaneous tasks. This was launched with many technical hurdles Term 3 of 2007.
iLearn has been integrated into the new school website allowing students to login using their ID and Password to obtain resources developed by a team of students for their own peers. The newly refurbished website was launched in January 2009 with an all-new look for future and current students.
In 1957 the school was granted its own board of governors and adopted the emblem of the Phoenix with the motto 'Sursum' meaning 'To the Heights'. The Phoenix was chosen for its symbolism the pursuit of excellence and periodic renewal and revitalization.
The Maclean Centre for disabled students was opened in 1977, named in honour of Mr B H Maclean, Principal from 1966-1981. The Centre moved into a new building in 2003 and the staff and students are fully involved in all areas of school life.
Mount Roskill Grammar School offers many sports, music and other extracurricular activities. The Flame is the student newspaper. Notably there are culture groups in Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Kapa haka, Tongan, Samoan, Tokelauan, Niuean and Cook Islands culture. The Indian Dance group won the 2007 Annual Bollywood Highschool Dance Competition.[8]
The Boys Chorus (Mr G's Boys Chorus) has been actively involved in Barbershop Music, winning a record of 5 consecutive Auckland Regional titles in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 as well as the New Zealand National Young Singers in Harmony Championships in 2002, 2005 and 2006. The school at that time was the only school in New Zealand to have won 3 National Championships, and 2 consecutively.
Bishop Viard College in Wellington will share the record of 2 consecutive titles set by Mount Roskill Grammar School in 2006 should they win the 2009 Young Singers in Harmony National Championships held in Auckland.
In March 2010, Mt Roskill Grammar School appeared on the TV3 Consumer Rights program "Target" regarding the introduction of their new uniform and the three year phase-in time, a costly introduction to parents of existing students. It was met with opposition by the student body but Greg Watson, the principal, pled ignorance to the issue and has stated that he had received positive support regarding it. Watson has not informed the school if a change will be made to the way the new school uniform will be introduced.
On March 16, 2011, Campbell Live, a TV3 current affairs programme aired an interview on bullying at Mount Roskill Grammar[16] where a member of the study body had been bullied to a point that she spent "12 lessons in the Dean’s office or the administration area across a 7-day period".[17] The school has begun to resolve the matter.[17]