Rangitoto College

Infobox NZ school
name = Rangitoto College
badge =
motto = motto: Circumspice (Latin: "Look around")
type = State co-ed Secondary (Year 9-13)
established = 1956
address = 564 East Coast Road, Mairangi Bay, Auckland
coordinates = 2665540 Easting 6494600 Northing (NZMG)
principal = David Hodge
roll = 3,022 (TKI data)
decile = 10
MOE = 28
homepage = [http://www.rangitoto.school.nz www.rangitoto.school.nz]

Rangitoto College (often abbreviated to "Rangi") is the largest secondary school in New Zealand with over 3,000 students as of 2007. The Correspondence School has more enrolled secondary students, but fewer full-time equivalent secondary students.

Location

Rangitoto College is located in Mairangi Bay, one of the East Coast Bays on Auckland's North Shore. The easternmost field as well as many of the classrooms on the eastern side of the school have a view of the Rangitoto Channel as well as Rangitoto Island.

Recent principals

In mid-2005, Allan Peachey stood down as Principal of the College in order to stand as a National Party candidate for election to parliament. Alison Cleland took over as principal during the interim. As a result of Peachey's election as the Member of Parliament for the Tamaki electorate, David Hodge, a former student at Rangitoto College, was appointed as Principal and has taken up the position in the 2006 school year and is now continuing into 2008.

Zoning and admission

Rangitoto currently operates an enrolment scheme. Being in the 'Rangi zone' is seen as a selling point for property, and real estate agencies have set up websites specifically to exploit this. As the Rangi Zone website states 'Rangitoto College Zone, is however, just one small area in the East Coast Bays on the North shore of Auckland'.

Academic performance

The [http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/qualifications/ssq/statistics/school-stats.do?pc=28 National Qualifications Framework statistics 2004 for Rangitoto College] show that, compared to the national average for all schools, Rangitoto College performs well. Such data must be treated carefully, and meaningful comparison has to take account of factors such as socio-economic background of students, school policy on which students are encouraged or allowed to take exams, and which subjects that students take exams in.

Rangitoto College is a decile 10 school, meaning that, as the ERO (Education Review Office) puts it, Rangitoto draws its students from an area of 'least socio-economic disadvantage'. The data show that it performs at, or slightly above, the average level for decile 10 schools nationally. Like other decile 10 schools Rangitoto performs better than schools from areas of greater socio-economic disadvantage.

Compared to the national average, Rangitoto students achieved very good results in the 2004 New Zealand Scholarship exams. [http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/qualifications/ssq/statistics/scholarship-results.do?year=2004&pc=28#t 2] .

Prior to Bursary being replaced by the National Certificate of Educational Achievement Rangitoto had at least one student recognised as New Zealand's top-scholar in a subject between 2001 to 2003; in 2003 Rangitoto had three four top-scholars including Top all-round Female Māori Scholar. [http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/for-providers/awards/topscholars/awards2003.html 5]

Notable former students

*Corney Swanepoel, Olympic swimmer
*Sean Marks, basketball player for the NBA / Tall Blacks
*Nandor Tanczos, politician
*Terenzo Bozzone, athlete
*Mikey Havoc, media personality
*Rebecca Spence, athlete
*Lizzy Igasan, hockey player
*Gary Freeman, ex rugby league player and coach
*Lisa Chappell, actress and muscian
*Fabian Coulthard, V8 driver
* [http://www.alexastill.com Alexa Still] , musician
*Rhys Millen, drifter/stunt driver
*Rudi Wulf, All Black