Wellington High School, New Zealand
| Wellington High School & Community Education Centre | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
 | |
Taranaki Street, Wellington | |
| Information | |
| Type | State secondary co-educational years 9-13 |
| Motto | excellence in learning |
| Established | 1886 |
| Ministry of Education Institution no. | 273 |
| Principal | Prue Kelly |
| School roll | 1182 |
| Socio-economic decile | 8 |
| Website | www.whs.school.nz |
Wellington High School is a co-educational (since 1905) secondary school in downtown Wellington, New Zealand. In 2005 the roll was approximately 1100 students. It was founded, as Wellington College of Design, in the 1880s with the intention of providing a more appropriate education for the Dominion than the narrow academic training provided by the existing schools. It is the first co-educational secondary in New Zealand.
Many of the current buldings date from the 1980s and are in the neo-brutalist style pyramidal roofs.
History
Wellington High School, and the institutions from which the current school evolved, have a significant place in the history of public education in New Zealand. It was founded in 1886 by Arthur Dewhurst Riley as the Wellington College of Design. In 1891 the school became Wellington Technical School. It moved to its present site on Taranaki Street from Mercer Street in 1922. Riley was a pioneer of technical and vocational education in New Zealand and his views influenced the Manual and Technical Instruction Act of 1900.
In 1964 the secondary and tertiary education parts separated, the upper part becoming Wellington Polytechnical School. Wellington Poly has now become Massey University's Wellington Campus. Other technical schools have also gone on to become tertiary institutions, including Auckland University of Technology and Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology. The school retains a large community education programme.
The history of Wellington Technical College up to 1961 is described in " The school that Riley built;: The story of the Wellington Technical College from 1886 to the present day" Noel Harrison, ASIN: B0007JSZJ2.
Current affairs
The School was New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Export Awards Education Exporter of the Year 2004 [1].
In 2004, the school made the national headlines [2] when students campaigned for the eviction of the Wellington branch of the Destiny Church, which was using the school hall for its services. Despite over 50% of enrolled students signing their names to a petition, the church still conducts services at the school.
In 2006, in repsonse to research on Wellington High students [3], and an award-winning student video [4], Principal Prue Kelly introduced a scheme which allows senior students' first classes to begin at 10:20am (as opposed to 8:45am). This issue has received much media coverage (e.g. [5], [6]) and very little controversy. Principal Prue Kelly is confident that this progressive trial in timetable restructuring will "catch on" and other schools will begin to adopt it as well.
LiveWire radio station
LiveWire is run by a student body, including Flora Wassillief and Riadan Matthews. The frequency is a public broadcast one, but due to restrictions on output watts for public access radio stations it has a limited range. No advertisements are currently played on LiveWire. Livewire was formed in 2000 by Gavin MacLean, a Media Studies and Digital Media teacher. It is now run mostly by Terry Hawkings, a technology teacher, and student Riadan Matthews.
LiveWire has a no swearing policy, due to it being a high school radio station. Several students have been temporarily suspended from livewire on account of swearing on air and/or playing music with swearing in it. The student body has also had some trouble with graffiti and vandalism in the broadcast room, and all shows were suspended for some time. This has since been corrected.
Shuffle is the show delivered by third formers Henry Cooke, Floyd Edwards and Orion Holder-Monk. They are the first third formers (year 9) to ever have a livewire show, their show is a mix of rock, punk, indie, pop, emo, comedy and metal. Henry plays mostly punk and indie, floyd centring on pop, comedy and rock, and Orion mostly plays Metal. The show has had several competitions and other interactive segments, often utilizing texting. The show is generally of a high standard. Henry goes to many all ages concerts around wellington, and gathers songs from upcoming bands in need of exposure, often using myspace as a primary source of communication.
Famous alumni
- Dan Weekes-Hannah - actor
- King Kapisi - musician
- Len Lye - artist - attended "evening art classes at Wellington Technical College (now Wellington High School)" see On the Waterfront
- Jon Toogood - "Musician" - Shihad
- Ben Hazlewood - NZ Idol contestant
Other schools with the same name
There are also Wellington High School in Florida, Colorado, Kansas, Ohio and Texas
References
"Destiny vows to move on as protest mars birthday". New Zealand Herald. 30.08.2004. Retrieved 2006-01-16. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)