Whanganui Collegiate School

Wanganui Collegiate School
Address
Liverpool Street, Wanganui
Coordinates	39°55′44.51″S 175°2′15.48″E
Information
Type	Private, Co-ed Secondary (Year 9-13)
Motto	Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum
Established	1852
Ministry of Education Institution no.	192
Principal	Tim Wilbur
School roll	490
Socio-economic decile	10
Website	www.collegiate.school.nz

Wanganui Collegiate School is an independent, coeducational, day and boarding secondary school in Wanganui, New Zealand. The school is affiliated to the Anglican church.

News

On 1 April 2009 it was officially announced that Wanganui Collegiate School will merge with St George's School in 2010. It was no April fool's joke.

About

The Wanganui Collegiate School was founded by a land grant in 1852 by the Governor of New Zealand, Sir George Grey to the Bishop of New Zealand, George Augustus Selwyn for the purpose of establishing a school.

It was originally a boys-only school, but in 1991 the school started to admit girls in the senior levels and then in 1999 went fully co-educational.

Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex spent two terms in 1982 at the school during his 'gap' year as a junior master.

In 2004, Wanganui Collegiate School celebrated its 150th Anniversary which included a visit from Prince Edward. It was a large celebration.

School life

As a boarding school, the house system plays a significant role in student life. Each house (of which there are 6 in total; four for boys and two for girls) accommodates approximately 80 students, and each has its own Housemaster, Assistant Housemaster and Matron.

The school grounds are also host to numerous sporting facilities, including the Izard Gymnasium, High Performance Cricket Centre, a full-sized Cross Country Course and many team sports fields. The nearby Whanganui River is used by students for rowing training and competitions; Rowing being one of the sports in which Collegiate has traditionally excelled, having won the Maadi Cup 17 times, a national record. The School also hosts the nationally popular Wanganui Cricket Festival each year which sees over 1000 cricketers display their skills throughout the month of January.

Since 1925, the school's 'First XV' rugby team has played Christ's College, Wellington College and Nelson College in an annual quadrangular rugby tournament. Collegiate last hosted the tournament in 2006, and is scheduled to do so again in 2010.

Notable alumni

• Robin Cooke, Baron Cooke of Thorndon, Law Lord
• Arthur Porritt, Baron Porritt, Governor-General of New Zealand
• Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, Fijian statesman
• David Kirk, All Black World Cup Winning Captain, and former Chief Executive of Fairfax Media
• Jimmy Hunter, member of The Original All Blacks
• Jeremy Wells (Newsboy), New Zealand television personality
• Volker Heine, physicist.
• John Scott, Former Director General of the Fiji Red Cross
• Ben Collier, NZ Hockey Representative
• Earl Bamber, Motor Racing Driver

Headmasters

• Charles Henry Sinderby Nicholls - 1854 to 1865
• Henry H Godwin - 1865 to 1877
• George Richard Saunders - 1878 to 1882
• Bache Wright Harvey - 1882 to 1887
• Walter Epsom - 1888 to 1909
• Julian Llewellyn Dove - 1909 to 1914
• Hugh Latter - 1914 to 1916
• Patrick Marshall - 1917 to 1922
• Charles Frederick Pierce - 1922 to 1931
• John Allen - 1932 to 1935
• Frank William Gilligan - 1936 to 1954
• Ian McKinnon - 1980 to 1988

Early History

The first head of the school was Rev. Charles Henry Sinderby Nicholls, who remained at the school from 1854 until 1860. At the time of the Rev. Mr. Nicholls advent, the greater part of the Wanganui Industrial estate-250 acres fronting Victoria Avenue, and within ten minutes' walk of the post office was a wilderness of swamp, and hills, scrub, fern ‘toe-toe’, and flax.

It was originally intended as a training school and educational establishment for the poor and indigent natives and half castes of both races in New Zealand and the islands adjacent thereto, but at the very beginning the school was beset by various problems. Not least were the problems of the local community as it found its feet in the new land. The Pākehā and Māori relationship was no worse in Wanganui than elsewhere in the north island, but the cultural differences did affect the early school and the later Māori Land wars certainly curtailed potential growth in the boarding.

There were also sharp differences of opinion amongst the local leading personalities, not only concerning the land development on which the school was sited, but concerning the function of the school itself. There is little doubt that Richard Taylor and Governor Sir George Grey envisaged that the school’s primary function was to be a Native School for Christianizing the Māori. On the other hand, George Augustus Selwyn and Nicholls, laid equal stress on the Industrial Nature of the proposed school, and these two concepts, the Industrial and the Native, tend to clash. The industrial aspect demanded a considerable amount of manual labor, which the Māori resented, and, it is reported, many of the Pākehā colonists objected to their children working alongside the Māori.

One of the main problems which led to the failure of the school only six years after its opening, was the basic philosophy reflected in its original name, ‘The Church of England Native and Industrial School’. Nicholls and Selwyn both appear to have concurred that the school should embrace a variety of concepts and popular ideas originating from the Swiss born Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827) in that they were establishing a school for destitute children of a self-supporting type based on agricultural means. However the Māori inhabitants did not appreciate the industrial philosophy, Nicholls was also accused of exceeded the work/labor aspect and it was accused that he saw the pupils too much in the light of cheap labor. As early as 1853, when concerned about the enormity of the labour required in preparing the school land, he wrote to Selwyn that matters would improve “when we get the labor of the pupils”. Richard Taylor wrote that “the Bishop of New Zealand introduced the industrial or self-supporting system, but it did not succeed. The parents as well as the scholars got the idea that there was more labor than teaching, and that they gave more than they gained.

Nicholls concept of the industrial school, together with the demands of converting swamp and barren sand ridges to building and agricultural land, undoubtedly clashed with the expectations and demands of the native aspect of the school’s title. This basic interference of one philosophy with another, together with the characters involved sowed the seeds of the troubles for the school in its opening years.