| Rutherford College | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Kotuku Street, Te Atatu, Auckland, New Zealand |
|
| Information | |
| Type | State co-ed secondary (years 9-13) |
| Motto | Tohea - To Strive |
| Established | 1961 |
| Ministry of Education Institution no. | 40 |
| Principal | Gary Moore |
| School roll | 1,322 |
| Socio-economic decile | 6[1] |
| Website | rutherford.school.nz |
Rutherford College is a co-educational state secondary school on the Te Atatu Peninsula, Auckland, New Zealand.
Contents |
Rutherford College (formerly named Rutherford High School) is a New Zealand Qualifications Authority accredited co-educational Year 9-13 State Secondary school, established in 1961. Named after the New Zealand-born nuclear physicist and chemist Lord Ernest Rutherford. It caters for students from year 9 to year 13, as well as providing adult education, special education and night courses. It offers well-qualified, professional staff are very successful in challenging students to achieve academic success in national assessments.
The College encourages student participation in a wide range of extra curricular activities, again challenging students to reach their full potential in all areas.
The Kaleidoscope Programme is for students who are gifted and/or talented and subjects. It program is an alternative to mainstream courses at Rutherford College. Rutherford is one of only a handful of schools in New Zealand to have been granted $300,000 under the Ministry of Education's Talent Development Initiative (TDI). This is to develop programmes that will enrich and develop students with special talents, helping them to excel to greater levels.[2]
The school teaches core subjects such as English, Mathematics and Science, and helps senior students pass NCEA (National Certificate of Educational Achievement). As well as core subjects, specialist subjects such as Chinese Mandarin, Japanese, Māori and German are taught as a second language, as well as aviation, environmental science and biochemistry, arts, physical education, technology, accounting and economics[3]
The Gateway program is also offered to students. This course helps students prepare to join the workforce once leaving school instead of moving on to Tertiary education. In this course students learn to make a CV and explore different options for once they finish school.
The Rutherford College Information Commons is an integrated learning environment where all students and staff have access to traditional and electronic information resources, electronic learning materials and productivity software, allowing them to integrate more information in to course work. The main purpose is to provide access to electronic learning and information resources as well as traditional sources of information.
Students are able to retrieve information from the library database, access course work through Learning Resources, send email and browse the Internet, use Microsoft Office and other specialist programs, including a number of Open Source applications - all on the same computer. The development of computer and information literacy skills will be a key focus area of the Information Commons and opportunities for training will be integrated into all aspects of service.
The Information Commons was officially opened in 2006 and students were allowed full use of the facility from the first term of 2007. Since then, it has become the most popular building on campus among staff and students alike. It is a student-centred facility that provides a variety of study spaces, 40 computers, easy access to information resources and technologies together with multi-skilled staff that support different learning and research needs in one physical location.
The vision has been to provide a highly visible, modern and unique facility which will inspire students to acquire new skills so that they can participate more actively in the learning process.
The school is undergoing an extensive building and renovation programme, which has already seen the completion and opening of its Information Commons. The Information Commons is currently one of only a few of its kind in New Zealand, housing a state-of-the-art computer lab, seminar rooms, study areas, and research facilities.
Further construction and upgrades include:
B Block has just been finished at the end of july 2010.
C block is due to start early 2011.