Saint Kentigern College

Saint Kentigern College is a private, co-educational Presbyterian secondary school in the Suburb of Pakuranga on the eastern side of Auckland, New Zealand, beside the Tamaki Estuary. It is operated by the Saint Kentigern Trust Board which also operates Saint Kentigern School in Remuera and Saint Kentigern School for Girls – Corran (formerly Corran School).

Established in 1953, the college is semi-coeducational with a single-sex middle school for years 7 and 8, with years 9 and 10 single sex in core subjects and a co-educational senior school for years 11–13.

Kentigern (or Mungo) is the patron Saint of Glasgow. In 2003, the college introduced girls into the school for the first time with 140 female students. There are now over 540 female students attending, with numbers increasing every year.

Saint Kentigern College is an IB World School offering the IB Diploma Programme for Year 12 and 13 students. The Saint Kentigern Trust Board approved the decision in late 2006. The course was first offered to Year 12 students in 2009.

History

Saint Kentigern College opened in 1953 on a rural site 16 kilometres from the centre of Auckland, bordering the waters of the Tamaki Estuary. With ninety foundation pupils and a staff of four, the College was the realisation of a dream for a group of Presbyterian ministers and laymen who had established the Saint Kentigern Trust in 1949^[2] to found a school for 'the acquisition of knowledge, for the glory of God, and the benefit of mankind, a proper discipline of mind and body, and a life of service to others.' The College took the name of the patron saint of Glasgow, Saint Kentigern, who is also affectionately known in Scotland as Mungo.

The foundation Headmaster of the College, chosen in 1952, was a Scottish minister, the Reverend Adam MacFarlan. With a distinguished academic record at the University of Glasgow and a Military Cross from active service in World War II, Mr MacFarlan led the College from its beginnings until his retirement in 1983. In 1972 he was awarded the Doctor of Divinity degree by his old university for 'services to education in New Zealand' and on his retirement received an OBE.^[2]

As its second Headmaster, Saint Kentigern College chose an Old Boy, Mr Nigel Toy. During his leadership, the College grew from 700 to over 1000 students and a building programme saw significant new facilities, including the Sir William Goodfellow Memorial Library^[2] and a new classroom block, as well as refurbished dormitories and new residential lodges at Bruce House, the College boarding hostel, where Mr Toy had once been Head Prefect.

In 1997, Mr Toy left New Zealand to take up a leadership position at St George's School, Vancouver, Canada, and was succeeded as Headmaster at Saint Kentigern by the Reverend David Williams, formerly Chaplain^[2] to the College. In his four years as Headmaster, he led major initiatives in pastoral care and information technology. Major landscaping changes enabled the development of the exceptionally designed Saint Kentigern Old Boy's Sports Centre as well as a range of new sports fields, and opened the way for the possibility of girls' education at Saint Kentigern in its second half-century.

Mr Williams left in 2001 when he was appointed Headmaster of Kinross-Wollaroi School in Orange, New South Wales, Australia. He was succeeded by Mr Warren Peat, who from a background of teaching in New Zealand co-educational schools was charged with leading the College in its introduction of girls and significant campus development.^[2] With Mr Peat in the position of Executive Head, Saint Kentigern College was restructured as a Senior School and Middle School and the roll rose to over 1600 boys and girls. As well as the Elizabeth MacFarlan Centre for girls, the magnificent Art and Technology complex and the extensively re-developed Music and Science buildings provided impressive specialist facilities for an expanding College. Mr Peat attracted a large staff of men and women, highly qualified across a wide range of subject disciplines, and challenged both staff and students to set the highest standards in all their endeavours. Major academic initiatives under his leadership saw both strong achievement in NCEA assessments and the endorsement of the College as an IB World School, authorised to teach the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme.

Saint Kentigern College Executive Head Warren Peat left at the end of 2008 to become headmaster of John Paul College, near Brisbane, Australia. He stated that there was "an offer he couldn't refuse". Mr Stephen Cole has now taken up the role of headmaster.^[3][4]

School Structure

The school's houses are named after Scottish Presbyterian churchmen, each of whom died for their cause (martyrs), and could be considered to have given their all for their faith. They are called:

• Wishart for George Wishart. (Yellow)
• Hamilton for Patrick Hamilton. (Red)
• Chalmers for James Chalmers. (Blue)^[5][6]
• Cargill for Donald Cargill. (Green)

Sport

Several high performance sports personalities and coaches based around the world have attended Saint Kentigern. The school has a tennis and golf academy for students who excel in the two sports respectively. Saint Kentigern has dominated tennis, golf, rugby, cycling and triathlon competitions in the last decade. Many school teams such as the rugby, hockey and cricket teams play in the top grades, while the Cycling and Triathlon programme (under the governance of Mr Rick Faulding) has thrived. Saint Kentigern College holds several Auckland cycling records and national titles. In triathlon, the College has many national titles also.

Rugby

Saint Kentigern College is noted for its rugby presence, producing All Blacks such as Joe Rokocoko, John Afoa and Jerome Kaino, all members of the champion 2001 1st XV, previous members of the Blues, Auckland rugby and All Blacks teams. The 1st XV were previous holders of the Moascar cup. Firstly in 1981, defeating Wesley, and again in 1999 when they defeated, the then World champion, Kelston Boys 18- 14. Other notable years were in 1996, 1998 and 2000 where they were Runners up in the 1A competition. 2001 saw the 1st XV eclipse the previous year's 1A competition and storm the championship in their defeat of King's College in the final. The 1st XV was relegated from 1A in 2003, but promoted back to the premier grade in 2005 after going undefeated in the 1B competition. The Saint Kentigern 1st XV won back to back 1A titles in 2011 and 2012, its first Top 4 National Championship in 2012, and back to back Co-educational National Titles in 2010 and 2011. As a result of winning the Top 4 National Final, the 2013 First XV had been invited to the Sanix Youth World Invitational Tournament. The tournament was staged in early May, where the 1st XV defeated Hartpury College to take the world championship title.^[7] The team then went onto win their third consecutive Auckland 1A title in 2013 with a last minute penalty. They became the first ever side to win a three-peat of 1A rugby titles.

Notable Alumni of the Rugby Program include John Afoa, Joe Rokocoko, Jerome Kaino, Steven Surridge, Kieran Read (all All Blacks), and more recently Joseph Edwards and Blake Gibson, both Auckland ITM cup and Blues players, along with 2011 Captain, Albert Vete who switched codes to rugby league with the New Zealand Warriors.

References

External links

• Saint Kentigern College Website