Western Springs College

Description

Western Springs College, known to those who teach and learn here as ‘Springs’, occupies a special place in New Zealand’s educational landscape. We characterize ourselves as a ‘waka hourua’ – a double hulled canoe of English medium and M?ori medium education. 

Springs is an educational environment where students can discover and develop unique personal strengths that allow them to share in the building of a just and sustainable society.

The ‘Springs’ English medium school of 1400 students and the M?ori medium rumaki immersion school, Ng? Puna o Wai?rea, of 300 students enables us to be doubly effective within the context of 21st century New Zealand Society.

If you had to choose one word to describe Springs, ‘real’ would be a good choice. We encourage academic achievement not as a prize fight, but because it opens doors that allow our students to follow any pathway they choose. We’re actively engaged with the communities we serve and the tertiary establishments that accept our graduates. And we attract teachers who are in the business of teaching, rather than enforcing rules for the sake of rules. Most of all, we understand that standing still is never an option. When proven educational innovations show us a better way, our students and teaching staff are keen pioneers.

Our school has completed the largest rebuild in the history of New Zealand secondary education.  The result is a “school like no other”. A truly exceptional piece of architecture designed to change the way we think about pre-university learning environments.  In fact, visitors tell us that Springs “looks like a University.  “There is no way this is a school!” is their response as they experience this place for the first time.

  • Ranked 1st or 2nd for University Entrance among the state coeducational high schools in Auckland Region; a top co-educational state high school in New Zealand since 2009.
  • Excellent location: nearby a lakeside park, zoo, museum, golf course, within walking distance to the beach, the closest co-educational state high school to Central Auckland City.
  • Reputation in teaching and achievement in both traditional and modern courses such as Fine Art, Performing Art (Dance & Drama), Media, Music, Technology (in Architecture/ Fashion/Digital/ Food/Carpentry), ESOL, Economics, Accounting and PE etc.
  • About 100 international students from over 15 nationalities.
  • Rich extra curriculum, sports and activities such as regular wind-surfing and paddle-boarding for international students.
  • Excellent detailed support and care to international students.
  • A small-medium sized school of about 1450 students.
  • Students are not required to wear uniform.

 

Programs

At ‘Springs’ we have created a learning environment that ensures all students have the opportunity to reach their potential. We strive to provide a successful pathway for every student.

Some subjects are compulsory and some are optional. Students are encouraged to participate in many different subject areas – we believe this helps prepare them for the wider world.

Year 9 and 10 students move in core classes through the required curriculum and also some optional classes. This encourages students to build relationships and also provides stability during the first two years. Our junior classes are relatively small and consist of students of mixed ability – we believe every student has different strengths.

Learning at the senior level dovetails with the NCEA Curriculum.

NCEA provides significant opportunities for personalising learning as do our accelerated and enrichment programmes. Personalising learning is an ongoing and gradual process but one which the school believes will optimise students’ success.

The school has always accelerated some students but over recent years has developed a fuller acceleration programme, which is overseen by the Accelerated Learners Coordinator.  The purpose of the acceleration program is threefold:

  1. To personalise learning and ensure students are fully challenged and extended;
  2. To more gradually introduce students to the NCEA system and its demands;
  3. To generate timetable space in Year 13 for students to pursue multiple Scholarships.

 

Most international students at Western Springs College continue their studies of traditional subjects such as English/ESOL, Maths, Science, History and Geography. An increasing number of students are interested in commerce subjects (Economics and Accounting) as well as Technology subjects such as Graphic Design, Digital Technology, Food Technology, Soft Material Technology (Fashion Design), and Hard Material Technology (Carpentry). Western Springs College designs its unique learning programmes to meet the needs of its students with the eight principles of The New Zealand Curriculum as the foundations and touchstones. The eight principles are as follows: High expectations; The Treaty of Waitangi; Cultural Diversity; Inclusion; Learning to learn; Community engagement; Coherence; Future focus.

Western Springs College has professional studios and classrooms for the subjects of Dance, Drama, Music, Media, Art Painting, Art Design, Art Photography, Graphic Design, Digital Technology, Food Technology and Carpentry and so on. Students receive detailed support from teachers. Their productions are outstanding.

PE (Physical Education) classes involve a lot of sports practices, games and camping programmes. The Sports Director at the College and other staff members are able to cater for and coordinate a wide range of individual sporting pursuits through the Auckland Regional College Sport Programme. Although there might be changes sometimes, sports teams at Western Springs College participate in a comprehensive range of sports and competitions. Sports teams represent the College in about 26 sports: tennis, volleyball, cricket, touch, water polo, athletics, swimming, dragon boating, softball, triathlon, waka ama, diving, cross country, netball, soccer, rugby, rugby league, hockey, basketball etc.