Marlborough Girls' College

Marlborough Girls' College is a single-sex secondary school in Blenheim, New Zealand.

Marlborough is a province known for its thriving viticulture industry and is commonly referred to as the wine region of New Zealand. This region often has the highest number of sunshine hours in New Zealand (2,448 hours annually).

Marlborough Girls’ College is well equipped with a Performing Arts block, laboratories, a restaurant, Soft Materials rooms, Graphics rooms, two well-equipped gymnasiums, a dance studio, a weights room, hairdressing salon, Whanau room, two arts rooms, five computer labs, Guidance suite including a careers centre, student canteen and extensive sports fields with tennis courts and netball courts.

International students are welcomed at MGC. Every effort is made to make their stay as enjoyable as possible and the school has an enthusiastic international department.

History

This school was established in 1963.^[1] Previously Blenheim was served by the co-educational Marlborough College, which subsequently continued to serve as Marlborough Boys' College.^[2]

Uniform

The uniform is a school tartan skirt, white blouse, school tie, blue jumper, and brown or black flat shoes. There is a variation in uniform between the seasons, and between the junior and senior students.

Houses

The Marlborough Girls' College has four houses:

• Awatere
• Opawa
• Kaituna
• Wairau

They consist of girls Year 9 – 13 and have a prefect leader. Form classes are divided into the various Houses and all form classes from Year 11 are vertical form classes. This provides seniors with more leadership opportunities and students the opportunities to mix with different year groups. Year 9 and 10 form classes are horizontal, which means that Junior students have a smooth start to college.

Notable alumnae

• Jenny Shipley (née Robson) - former Prime Minister of New Zealand^[3]
• Eileen Duggan poet and journalist

References