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St Paul's College, Auckland

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St Pauls College, Auckland
Location
183 Richmond Road,
Ponsonby,
Auckland
36°51′15″S 174°44′14″E / 36.8542°S 174.7373°E
Information
Type Integrated Catholic Boys Secondary (Year 7–13)
Motto Confortare Esto Vir — take courage, be a man
Established 1955; 71 years ago (original school founded in 1903)
Ministry of Education Institution no. 51
Principal Keith Simento[1]
Enrollment 395[2] (July 2026)
Socio-economic decile 2E[3]
Website St Pauls College website

St Paul's College is a Catholic secondary school for boys owned by the Marist Brothers and located in the central Auckland suburb of Ponsonby on a spacious 7.3 hectare campus. The Marist Brothers first opened a school on the site (Sacred Heart College) in 1903. St Paul's College (named after the apostle Paul) commenced operations in 1955.

Character

The college, which became a State-integrated school in 1982, makes full use of its extensive grounds in sporting and other activities.[4] The school offers the standard intermediate and secondary school curriculum[5] leading, for the senior year levels, to the National Certificate of Educational Achievement assessment system (NCEA). The school has good pass rates in NCEA.[6][7] The college excels in sport, especially Rugby football[4] and in Polynesian and other cultural activities, notably in the annual ASB Polyfest competitions.[8] The Marist Brothers, the proprietors of the school, maintain a small community of non-teaching brothers on the campus to encourage the continuation of the Marist charism.[9]

Ethos and academics

The school aims to incorporate students' families in the life of the college and to encourage the spirit of independence and personal responsibility amongst the students.[10] The school roll has grown as the college continues "exhorting students" to "exam success" and "altruistic action."[9] In 2022, 65%% of all St Paul's College leavers attained NCEA level 3 and 68% of pacific students did so.[11]

Houses

The names and colours of the St Paul's College Houses are:

Headmasters

  • Br. Brian Wanden (Br Anselm) "Headmaster at St Paul's College for many years"[12]
  • Denys Marra (1991 - 2009)[13]
  • Mark Rice (2009 - 2016)[14]
  • Kieran Fouhy (2016 - 2021)
  • Keith Simento (2021–present)

History

Marist brothers

The Marist Brothers arrived in Auckland in 1885 and began operations on the site of previous schools in Pitt St in the Auckland city centre. In the 1890s they began teaching secondary classes there but it became evident that the Pitt St site was too small and noisy.

The campus

By 1900 negotiations were underway with Bishop Lenihan who arranged for the brothers to lease part of a block of land of 48 acres (10 hectares) near Cox's Creek in Ponsonby. This land had been gifted to the Diocese of Auckland in 1851 by Hugh Coolahan, an Auckland Catholic businessman.[15] He had come from Ireland and had prospered during the early days of Auckland's commercial development. He had been a member of the building committee for St Patrick's Church (later the cathedral)[16] and was a founding member of the board of St Peter's School in Pitt St.[17] The Marist Brothers leased 7.3 hectares of the land at £30 a year for a 42-year term.[15]

The school, Sacred Heart College, was opened on 21 June 1903. The first building was a large three storied building with a prominent encompassing verandas. It was built from brick resting on concrete foundations. The bricks were coated in white plaster which later became grey with age. This building was a prominent landmark and became the main school building of St Paul's College until it was demolished in 1980.[18]

The site required much development. A gully ran through the middle of the property and the land was very unevenly contoured. Some of the land was farmed by the college. Over time the land was levelled, grassed and drained and other buildings were gradually built.[19] In 1955 the complete campus and buildings was taken over by St Paul's. But by the 21st century, the only Sacred Heart College structures left at St Pauls were a classroom, the old infirmary and a statue of the Sacred Heart.[20] However the campus's well-wooded character testifies to its historic character.

It was only on 4 September 1946 that the Marist Brothers had acquired the freehold of the St Paul's College Richmond Rd site. On 14 June 1946 the site was vested in the New Zealand Marist Brothers' Trust Board and there was a small ceremony and Bishop Liston was thanked by the Marist Brothers. One brother later observed, perhaps sardonically, that the Marist Brothers had been paying for the land for over forty years and had effected great improvements.[21]

Roll

The school operated as St Paul's College after Queen's Birthday 1955 (from Tuesday 7 June) under the same motto "Confortare esto vir". The same traditions were faithfully upheld as they had been for the previous 50 years. Many sons of former students of the Marist Brothers preferred to attend St Paul's in the following years, both because it was centrally located and because their fathers had been educated on the site.[22] The school maintained a substantial roll into the 1970s. On 8 August 1982, when the school was integrated it had a roll of 330 (280 in the secondary section and 50 in the middle or intermediate school), but this was increased in 1998 to a maximum roll of 400.[23] However, with the establishment of other secondary schools in the school's traditional catchment, enrolment numbers declined.[9] Many of the families associated with the school moved out of the local area as the socio-economic character of suburbs adjacent to the school changed although many still sent their sons to St Paul's by bus, mostly from South Auckland.[4][7] The school was attempting to attract the sons of the new local demographic as well as the college's traditional supporters. In 2015 a 1700 square metre slice of unused school land was sold to fund new class rooms, an administration block and a new middle school was opened in 2018.[9] Because of population intensification of the local central Auckland area and development of the school site, the present school roll is expected to increase substantially over time.[24]

Notable alumni

The arts

Business

Politics and public service

Sports

Boxing

Olympians

Cricket

Kick-boxing

Rugby league

Rugby union

References

  1. Back to citation Michal Otto, "New Headmaster for St. Paul's", NZ Catholic, 15 September 2021
  2. Back to citation "New Zealand Schools Directory". New Zealand Ministry of Education. Retrieved 1 July 2026.
  3. Back to citation "Decile Change 2014 to 2015 for State & State Integrated Schools". Ministry of Education. Retrieved 12 February 2015.
  4. Back to citation occurrence 4.0 Back to citation occurrence 4.1 Back to citation occurrence 4.2 Laura Walters, "St Paul's College sells chunk of land in trendy Ponsonby", Stuff News, 2 July 2015 (Retrieved 20 June 2016)
  5. Back to citation The New Zealand Curriculum (Retrieved 22 June 2016)
  6. Back to citation Laura Walter, "How Auckland's St Paul's College is fighting back", Stuff News, 7 July 2015. (Retrieved 20 June 2016)
  7. Back to citation occurrence 7.0 Back to citation occurrence 7.1 St Paul's College (Ponsonby) – 03/09/2012, Education Review Office report (Retrieved 20 June 2016)
  8. Back to citation ASB Polyfest 2016 (Retrieved 20 June 2016)
  9. Back to citation occurrence 9.0 Back to citation occurrence 9.1 Back to citation occurrence 9.2 Back to citation occurrence 9.3 Matt McEvoy, pp. 153–154.
  10. Back to citation Michael Otto, "Papal Knight headmaster earns MNZM", NZ Catholic, 26 June – 8 July 2016, p. 2.
  11. Back to citation Derek Cheng and Chris Knox, "How does your school rate? NCEA and UE results at every college ranked", NZ Herald 29 February 2024 (Retrieved 17 June 2024)
  12. Back to citation "What's Up? Keeping our old boys in the loop", St Paul's College, 2 July 2020 (Retrieved 11 October 2021)
  13. Back to citation Carly Tawhiao, "St Paul's College farewells principal", Stuff News, 31 March 2009 (Retrieved 12 October 2021)
  14. Back to citation Laura Walters, "How Auckland's St Paul's College is fighting back", Stuff News, 6 July 2015 (Retrieved 12 October 2021)
  15. Back to citation occurrence 15.0 Back to citation occurrence 15.1 Tony Waters, p. 22.
  16. Back to citation Father E.R. Simmons, "The first St Peter's School", Zealandia, 9 January 1977, p. 9.
  17. Back to citation Tony Waters, P. 314 (Note 6).
  18. Back to citation Tony Waters, pp. 25–26.
  19. Back to citation Tony Waters, pp. 49–52.
  20. Back to citation Tony Waters, p. 61.
  21. Back to citation Tony Waters, p. 124.
  22. Back to citation Tony Waters, p. 138.
  23. Back to citation Deed of Agreement between the New Zealand Marist Brothers Trust Board and Her Majesty the Queen, 8 August 1982 Clause 8, P. 7; Supplementary Deed of Agreement, 27 May 1998, Clause 1, p. 1.
  24. Back to citation St Paul's College 10 year Strategic plann, 2023 Retrieved 17 June 2024)
  25. Back to citation Ticketfly: Brendan Perry, Guthrie Baldwin(Retrieved 14 January 2014)
  26. Back to citation "Jean-Baptiste Piggin", Researchgate (Retrieved 1 November 2024); "Jean-Baptiste Piggin Obituary" NZH 2 July 2019 (Retrieved 1 November 2024); "The Great Stemma", JB Piggin, 2019 (Retrieved 19 November 2024); Roger Pearse, "Farewell J.-B. Piggin, of ” Piggin’s Unofficial list” of Vatican manuscript releases online" (Retrieved 31 January 2025)
  27. Back to citation "Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  28. Back to citation Bennett, Adam (9 August 2008). "Exhilarating ride may finally be over". The New Zealand Herald. ISSN 1170-0777. Retrieved 21 December 2010.
  29. Back to citation Gustafson, Barry (1986). The First 50 Years: A History of the New Zealand National Party. Auckland: Reed Methuen. p. 323. ISBN 0-474-00177-6.
  30. Back to citation Tuila'epa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi and Peter Swain, Pālemia, Victoria University Press, Wellington, 2017, pp. 50–51

Bibliography

  • Jenny Carlyon & Diana Morrow, Urban Village: The Story of Ponsonby, Freemans Bay and St Mary's Bay, Random House, Auckland, 2008.
  • Pat (Patrick Owen) Gallagher, The Marist Brothers in New Zealand, Fiji & Samoa, 1876–1976, New Zealand Marist Brothers' Trust Board, Tuakau, 1976.
  • Matt McEvoy, The Grey Lynn Book: The life and times of New Zealand's most fascinating suburb, Paul Little Books, Auckland, 2016, pp. 149–153 (Chapter 29, "Change of Heart – Saint Paul's College")
  • E.R. Simmons, In Cruce Salus, A History of the Diocese of Auckland 1848 – 1980, Catholic Publication Centre, Auckland 1982.
  • Tony Waters, Confortare, A History of Sacred Heart College, Auckland 1903 – 2003: a Marist Brothers secondary school, Sacred Heart College, Auckland, 2003.
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