Pakuranga College

Pakuranga College
Caelum Certe Patet ('Reach for the skies)
Location
Pigeon Mountain Road, Bucklands Beach, Auckland, New Zealand
Coordinates	36.8978°S 174.9028°E / -36.8978; 174.9028
Information
Type	State co-ed Secondary School Year 9-13
Established	1960
Ministry of Education Institution no.	80
Principal	Michael Williams
School roll	2112
Socio-economic decile	8
Website	pakuranga.school.nz

Pakuranga College is a secondary school in east Auckland, New Zealand. Since mid-2009, the current principal has been Michael Williams, following the departure of former principal Heather McRae to Diocesan School for Girls.

History

The school was built on part of an old dairy farm that was known for its swampy soil in winter. This continued to be a problem for winter sports until good drains were added. The first principal did not take his position when the school opened as he was ill. The school was run by acting principal Wattie Flemming for the first year. Ken Rae continued until his retirement in 1966. The first school house system consisted of 4 mythical animals from Greek mythology including Pegasus and Argus. After about 20 years the system was changed. All students wore uniform from the start. The school colour was green. The girls were initially required to wear both gloves and hats when outside of school. Boys all wore caps out of school. Year 12 and 13 students (called sixth form and upper 6th in the 1960s) had a different green uniform. Prefects wore green blazers with emblems showing school awards and a metal prefects badge. From 1969 male prefects wore long trousers,white shirts and green ties. After Ken Rae the principals were: Earnest Rive till 1977, Stan Seagar till 1986, Pamela Stone till 2003, Bali Haque till 2006, Heather McRae till 2009 and Michael Williams (present)

Ribena

As part of a school science project in 2004 at Pakuranga College, two 14-year-old school girls (Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo) discovered that Ribena, a blackcurrant fruit juice drink sold in 100ml ready-to-drink containers contained very little Vitamin C, contrary to advertising for the product. Approaches by the two teens to the company did not resolve the issue but the matter was publicised on national consumer affairs television show Fair Go and came to the attention of the Commerce Commission (a government funded 'consumer watch-dog'). The commission's testing found that Ribena contained no detectable vitamin C. On March 27, 2007, GlaxoSmithKline pleaded guilty in an Auckland District Court to 15 charges relating to misleading conduct, and was fined $217,000.

School buildings

Pakuranga College has traditionally named its blocks of classrooms after past principals and staff. This is evident in all the principals from Mr Rae to Ms Stone having classroom blocks named after them:

• Rae Block - a general purpose block, with a strong focus on the social sciences.
• Rive Block - a general purpose block, containing science classrooms, computer labs and the languages department.
• Seager Block - the mathematics block, containing all the mathematics offices.
• Pamela Stone Block - the English block.
• Jill Sweeny Block - the most recently built science block, containing most of the schools' science classrooms (Chemistry, Biology and Physics). The block is named after the former science teacher and head of department, Jill Sweeny, who contributed a lot to the science department.

There are a number of other buildings throughout the school, given generic names.

House system

There are six houses in Pakuranga College, each named after a New Zealand native tree: Kauri, Rimu, Totara, Pohutukawa, Nikau and Matai. Each house is represented by a different color and mascot as well as having its own dean and assistant dean, who deal with the day to day management of the house, such as disciplinary issues and student management. Each house consists of 12 tutor groups. Each tutor group is led by an individual teacher and each tutor group contains approximately 30 students, of all year levels (Years 9-13). Until the end of 2007, tutor groups would meet for 20 minutes before the commencement of the regular classes, however, this meeting time was moved until the completion of second period, 20 minutes before the start of interval, the tutor group maintaing its original length. During tutor group time students have their names taken and are read the daily notices to see what activities are on that day. This time provides an opportunity for students to mix with others from all year levels.