New Zealand
New Zealand is a sovereign island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, the South Island —and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 2,000 kilometres east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and 1,000 kilometres south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia and Tonga; because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal and plant life; the country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington. Sometime between 1250 and 1300, Polynesians settled in the islands that were named New Zealand and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, which declared British sovereignty over the islands.
In 1841, New Zealand became a colony within the British Empire and in 1907 it became a dominion. Today, the majority of New Zealand's population of 4.9 million is of European descent. Reflecting this, New Zealand's culture is derived from Māori and early British settlers, with recent broadening arising from increased immigration; the official languages are English, Māori, NZ Sign Language, with English being dominant. A developed country, New Zealand ranks in international comparisons of national performance, such as quality of life, education, protection of civil liberties, economic freedom. New Zealand underwent major economic changes during the 1980s, which transformed it from a protectionist to a liberalised free-trade economy; the service sector dominates the national economy, followed by the industrial sector, agriculture. Nationally, legislative authority is vested in an elected, unicameral Parliament, while executive political power is exercised by the Cabinet, led by the prime minister Jacinda Ardern.
Queen Elizabeth II is the country's monarch and is represented by a governor-general Dame Patsy Reddy. In addition, New Zealand is organised into 11 regional councils and 67 territorial authorities for local government purposes; the Realm of New Zealand includes Tokelau. New Zealand is a member of the United Nations, Commonwealth of Nations, ANZUS, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ASEAN Plus Six, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Pacific Community and the Pacific Islands Forum. Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted New Zealand in 1642 and named it Staten Land "in honour of the States General", he wrote, "it is possible that this land joins to the Staten Land but it is uncertain", referring to a landmass of the same name at the southern tip of South America, discovered by Jacob Le Maire in 1616. In 1645, Dutch cartographers renamed the land Nova Zeelandia after the Dutch province of Zeeland. British explorer James Cook subsequently anglicised the name to New Zealand. Aotearoa is the current Māori name for New Zealand.
It is unknown whether Māori had a name for the whole country before the arrival of Europeans, with Aotearoa referring to just the North Island. Māori had several traditional names for the two main islands, including Te Ika-a-Māui for the North Island and Te Waipounamu or Te Waka o Aoraki for the South Island. Early European maps labelled the islands North and South. In 1830, maps began to use North and South to distinguish the two largest islands and by 1907 this was the accepted norm; the New Zealand Geographic Board discovered in 2009 that the names of the North Island and South Island had never been formalised, names and alternative names were formalised in 2013. This set the names as North Island or Te Ika-a-Māui, South Island or Te Waipounamu. For each island, either its English or Māori name can be used. New Zealand was one of the last major landmasses settled by humans. Radiocarbon dating, evidence of deforestation and mitochondrial DNA variability within Māori populations suggest New Zealand was first settled by Eastern Polynesians between 1250 and 1300, concluding a long series of voyages through the southern Pacific islands.
Over the centuries that followed, these settlers developed a distinct culture now known as Māori. The population was divided into iwi and hapū who would sometimes cooperate, sometimes compete and sometimes fight against each other. At some point a group of Māori migrated to Rēkohu, now known as the Chatham Islands, where they developed their distinct Moriori culture; the Moriori population was all but wiped out between 1835 and 1862 because of Taranaki Māori invasion and enslavement in the 1830s, although European diseases contributed. In 1862 only 101 survived, the last known full-blooded Moriori died in 1933; the first Europeans known to have reached New Zeala
One Tree Hill College
One Tree Hill College is a state coeducational secondary school located in the district of Ellerslie in Auckland, New Zealand. One Tree Hill College Penrose High School, opened on 1 February 1955. In 2013 it had a student body of 930 consisting of more than 40 different cultures; the governing body for the college since 1989 has been the One Tree Hill College Board of Trustees. It provides curriculum and financial oversight but day-to-day management of the college, within the board's policy framework, is handled by the principal and the senior leadership team. Penrose takes its name from Penrose Farm carved out of about 400ha of land purchased by Cornishman William Williams from the Maori owners in 1843. Williams, not related to the Anglican missionary of the same name, named the farm after Penrose Farm in the parish of Budock, where he is thought to have been born and where his father was bailiff. According to Williams it was the ‘best farm in Budock, the best in all Cornwall’. Research by foundation principal Ron Stacey reveals the property on which Penrose High School stands formed part of land granted to James Haldane Watt, a settler, on 10 December 1847.
When he died in 1876 he left it to Robert Henry Watt and David Bruce Watt. It was mortgaged to Alfred Greatback Glover who gained ownership in 1884 after the Watts defaulted, it was let to Jane Board of Ellerslie and sold to her in 1896. The land was subdivided; the Department of Education starting acquiring land for a secondary school during the period of the first Labour government. Once secondary education became more accessible after the abolition of the proficiency certificate in 1937, the department set its sights on building a super-school of superior quality — a ‘landmark’ in Ministry of Works’ parlance. Penrose High School is said to have been designed with the view that it could serve as a hospital in the event of war, its staff facilities and corridors, far more generous in size than for most New Zealand secondary schools give the impression that it was planned for another use. The Department of Education's standard plans were for schools of 600 pupils. Penrose, which had the working name of ‘Ellerslie Grammar School’, was built for 750 to 800 pupils and, 58 years after it opened, it retains some of the finest school buildings anywhere in the country.
The site was difficult to build on, not least because of the large amounts of volcanic rock that had to be excavated. In the first year, after the initial buildings were opened, £48,000 had to be spent developing the school grounds, it was to take several years. On 20 April 1977 Penrose High School’s ‘home within a school’, Whanau House, was opened by Education Minister Les Gander in keeping with Maori protocol. Maori elder Eruera Kawhia Stirling gave the opening speech in Maori and the minister replied in Maori. Whanau House — described as a ‘place for people to live, laugh and respond and related as an extended family in the true spirit of Whanau’ — was the crowning glory of Murray Print’s principalship. Planned in 1974, the complex accommodated 250 pupils between third and seventh form. While it was billed as a world first, the Whanau House concept would reflect as much on European educational tradition as Maori culture, it signalled the introduction of a house system, a feature of English private schools since time immemorial..
The challenge for Print’s successor, John Rose, was to extend the Whanau House benefits across the whole school. Whanau House became Hinau House and four other houses were established — Kowhai, Miro and Rata. By 1979 they each had their designated commons areas and distinct identities, including house colours — Hinau, Miro and Rata. Competition was an important part of the house system from the beginning. In 1977 the houses competed in athletics with Hinau taking first place and it held that lead when a range of non-sporting endeavours were assessed. An Interhouse Shield has been competed for most years; the number of houses was reduced from five to four after 1982 because of a drop in the school roll. At this time Tawa's house colour was changed from blue to red, Hinau from white to purple; the house system, as controversial as it was challenging, came to an end in the late 1990s and Penrose reverted to a more traditional class format. Classes were organised on a house system in 1999 but from 2000 the house system applied to sports competition only, until 2008 when it was reinvented with the $15 million property upgrade.
Between 2006 and 2009, $15 million was spent on redevelopment — upgrading the college's buildings and computer network. The upgrade was aimed to'modernise the school and ensure that students have access to the best educational facilities'; the name change of Penrose High School to One Tree Hill College took place on 21 July 2008 after extensive consultation with parents, past pupils and the college's wider community. The name was changed; the college was reopened and rededicated on 13 March 2009 by John Key, New Zealand prime minister. A former student, singer Tina Cross took part in this ceremony. Afterwards, the college released flyers to over 25,000 homes in the surrounding area promoting the new college. One Tree Hill College's house system, which dates from 1969, con
Rangitoto College
Rangitoto College is a state coeducational secondary school, located on the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. Serving Years 9 to 13, Rangitoto has a school roll of 3215 as of August 2018, making it the largest "brick-and-mortar" school in New Zealand. Patrick Gale is the current principal. Rangitoto College is located on 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. Rangitoto College opened with an initial roll of 180 Year 9 and 10 students. A block and D block are the school's two original buildings. Like many secondary schools in Auckland, Rangitoto operates an enrolment scheme to help curb roll numbers and prevent overcrowding. Rangitoto's enrolment zone, in which students residing are automatically entitled to be enrolled without rejection, covers 12 square kilometres, includes Browns Bay, Campbells Bay, Mairangi Bay, Murrays Bay, Rothesay Bay, Sunset North, Windsor Park, parts of Meadowood and Rosedale east of the Auckland Northern Motorway.
Students residing outside the zone are accepted as roll places allow per the enrollment scheme order of preference and secret ballot. At the September 2015 Education Review Office review of the school, the school had 2871 students enrolled, including 258 international students; the school roll's gender composition was evenly split between male and female, its ethnic composition was 45% New Zealand European, 11% Chinese, 6% African, 7% Māori, 2% South East Asian, 1% Indian, 1% Pacific Islanders, 12% other European, 11% other Asian, 3% other. Rangitoto College has a socio-economic decile rating of 10, meaning it draws its school community from areas of highest socio-economic strata when compared to other New Zealand schools. In mid-2005, principal Allan Peachey stood down in order to stand as a National Party candidate for election to Parliament. Alison Cleland took over as principal in 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 in 2006, but left in 2017.
Patrick Gale is the current principal. Rangitoto College is a decile 10 school, meaning that, as the ERO puts it, Rangitoto draws its students from an area of'least socio-economic disadvantage'; the data show. 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 good results in the 2008 New Zealand Scholarship exams. 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 and 2003. 5. In 2006 a Rangitoto College student was named "Top Scholar in New Zealand" for the subject of history in 2006 based on the NCEA framework. In 2013, 94.4 percent of students leaving Rangitoto College held at least NCEA Level 1, 89.5 percent held at least NCEA Level 2, 76.3 percent held at least University Entrance. This is compared to 85.2%, 74.2%, 49.0% for all students nationally.
Amy Adams - member of parliament for the Selwyn electorate Terenzo Bozzone - athlete Graham Candy - actor/musician Lisa Chappell - actress and musician Fabian Coulthard - V8 driver Oliver Driver - actor/TV personality Gary Freeman - former professional rugby league footballer and coach Mikey Havoc - media personality Lizzy Igasan - hockey player Ellen Kraal - radio diskjockey on Radio Caroline Alex Maloney - Olympic sailor, silver medallist in the 49er FX class at Rio 2016 Sean Marks - former basketball player in the NBA / Tall Blacks, current GM for the Brooklyn Nets Rhys Millen - drifter/stunt driver Dean O'Gorman - actor, photographer Alexa Still - musician Corney Swanepoel - Olympic swimmer Nandor Tanczos - member of parliament for the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand and social ecologist Louise Upston - member of parliament for the Taupō electorate Tai Wynyard – basketball player with the New Zealand Breakers and Tall Blacks.
Glendowie College
Glendowie College is a co-ed public secondary school based along Crossfield Road, Mt Taylor Drive and Riddell Road in Auckland, New Zealand. The college was opened in 1961, with fewer than 200 pupils, all of whom worked in the Addams Building, the only building established at the time of the school's opening Glendowie College offers NCEA as its national qualification standard. An Advanced Learning Program is available in years 9 and 10 for intelligent students. Exceptionally gifted students are given the opportunity to accelerate into classes a year or two years ahead of their peers in order to progress their learning; the school performs well academically, the Education Review Office has said that students are progressing and achieving well. Ginny Blackmore - Musician Marina Erakovic - professional tennis player Noah Hickey - Gisborne City soccer player Kevin Iro - New Zealand national rugby league representative Tony Iro - New Zealand national rugby league representative Jarod Rawiri - Shortland Street actor Dane Sorensen - New Zealand national rugby league representative Kurt Sorensen - New Zealand national rugby league representative Sarah Thomson - Actor Judith Tizard - politician "Mad" Mike Whiddett - International Drift Driver and Ambassador for Motorsport in New Zealand The main buildings on the school grounds were named using letters from the alphabet, but in 2016 they renamed the buildings after past principals.
The buildings are: B Block - Hammer Building C Block - Eddy Building Tech Block - Adams Building Library Block - Sommerville Building Multi Purpose Sports FacilityThe Adams Building was the only building established when the college opened in 1961. From its opening in 1961 to 2017, the houses of Glendowie College were named after continents; the houses were: Asia - Yellow Europe - Green America - Red Pacific - BlueIn 2017, new house names were chosen to be more relevant to New Zealand: Ruaumoko Tane Mahuta Tangaroa TawhirimateaThe houses are randomly assigned, however younger siblings are assigned to the same houses as their older sibling. On 1, 2 and 3 April 2011, Glendowie College held many events to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the school's founding. On 29 and 30 July 2011, Glendowie College was the setting of the film Mister Pip directed by Andrew Adamson and based on the popular novel by Lloyd Jones. Students were invited to work alongside cast and crew; the film first screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2012 and was released in theatres throughout New Zealand in October 2013
Orewa College
Orewa College is a state coeducational combined intermediate and secondary school located in Orewa, on the Hibiscus Coast north of Auckland, New Zealand. A total of 1989 students from Years 7 to 13 attend the school as of August 2018; the school opened in 1956 as a combined primary and secondary school. In 1974, the primary school was split off and the school became Orewa College. Year 9 to 13 only, Year 7 and 8 were added in 2005. On 24 June 2009, one of the school's coal-fired central heating boilers exploded while maintenance on the heating system was being carried out; the explosion blew the roof off shattered windows across the school. School caretaker Richard Nel received burns to 90 percent of his body and died of his injuries in hospital. A contractor was critically injured, receiving severe head injuries and burns to the abdomen and legs, but survived the accident; the school's board of trustees was subsequently charged under the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992. They pleaded guilty to all charges at the court-case in April 2010, were subsequently ordered to pay reparation and court costs totalling nearly $137,000.
International students make up for around 20% of the school roll. Germany and Japan have ongoing exchange programmes with the college - students stay from 3 months to 3 years. Other international students are immigrants to New Zealand and their high volume reflects that of the Northern Auckland population of high foreign immigrants from Asian countries. Orewa College, along with the Rodney District Council decided to build a flexible, multi-use, modern auditorium and is now a valuable asset to the students and teachers of the college and the community. At the July 2012 Education Review Office review of the school, Orewa College had 1901 students, including 92 international students; the school roll's gender composition was 53% male and 47% female, its ethnic composition was 68% New Zealand European, 15% other European, 10% Māori, 2% Pacific Islanders, 1% Asian, 4% Other. Orewa College Website
Papakura High School
Papakura High School is a co-educational state secondary school based in the Auckland suburb of Papakura in New Zealand, catering for students from Year 9 to Year 13. The school was established in 1954 and is now made up of a diverse student body, administering students from the greater southern Auckland area; the school is located on the southern boundary of the Auckland metropolitan area, located 32 kilometers south of Auckland CBD. In 2017 the School Rebranded and updated their Motto to: Kia Rangatira The school is organised into three whanau: Kirikiri, Te Aparangi, Otuuwairoa; the three whanaus are each named after obsolete place names in the Papakura area. These three whanau replaced the school's old house structure at the beginning of the 2017 school year; the New Zealand Ministry of Education's Education Review Office summarised their 2015 report on Papakura High School with the remark "Papakura High School continues a history of poor performance and is not providing a curriculum that adequately promotes student learning."
The report identified a number of problems relating to curriculum, achievement and leadership. Management of student behaviour was identified as a particular concern, with the report noting that "Pastoral care and student management systems have not been reviewed and evaluated, despite ongoing recommendations." The school offers NCEA as its national qualification standard. Students are able to sit NCEA Level 1 papers as early Year 11, however Papakura High School is one of the few colleges in Auckland to offer an NCEA Level 1 Humanities class to academically able Year 10 students also. Selected senior students have the opportunity to participate in "Gateway", where they individually attend work experience placements during the school term, organised by the Careers department; the school offers Correspondence papers for specialised subjects and holds workshops and information sessions for students and their chosen programme. The school recently introduced national qualifications into unit standard courses of Mathematics and Recreation, Catering, where students can work towards NCEA credits as well as gaining a national qualification.
Papakura High School was the first school in New Zealand to offer the Marae Catering course under the NCEA structure. Ioane Fitu Afoa - former All Black Jerome Kaino - All Black Jazz Tevaga - Warriors Patrick Mailata - New Zealand Professional Boxer Papakura District Ministry of Education
TVNZ
Television New Zealand, more referred to as TVNZ, is a state-owned television network, broadcast throughout New Zealand and parts of the Pacific region. Although the network identifies as a national, part-public broadcaster, it is commercially funded. TVNZ was competition free until November 1989; this began the battle for ratings with the only real rival MediaWorks New Zealand, which operates channels Three, ThreeLife and The Edge TV. However, TVNZ still maintains a number of transmission advantages due to its long-standing relationship with the state-owned sister company Kordia. TVNZ operates playout services from its Auckland studio via Kordia's fibre and microwave network for TVNZ 1, TVNZ 2 and TVNZ Duke, with new media video services via the American-owned Brightcove, streamed on the Akamai RTMP/HLS DNS based caching network, its former channels include TVNZ Kidzone, TVNZ Heartland, TVNZ U, TVNZ 7, TVNZ 6, TVNZ Sport Extra. 90% of TVNZ's revenue is from commercial activity. The remainder of its funding comes from government funding agencies.
TVNZ was created in February 1980, through the merger of Television One and South Pacific Television. Until January 1989, it was paired with Radio New Zealand as the Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand; the broadcaster was based in Television One's former headquarters at the Avalon television centre in Lower Hutt, however over the course of the 1980s, operations were moved to Auckland. In 1989, TVNZ moved to a new television centre in central Auckland. Broadcasting in New Zealand was deregulated in 1989; the Labour-led government under Helen Clark from 1999 to 2008 pursued a programme of public broadcasting reforms. New Zealand's wide-ranging adoption of neoliberal policies in the mid-1980s and 1990s had large sections of the state sector privatised; as a state owned enterprise, TVNZ enjoyed enormous commercial success and paid the Crown substantial dividends. However, the commercial success had been achieved through an unabashed pursuit of ratings through populist and tabloid content, prior to the 1999 election the National-led government was evidently positioning TVNZ for commercialisation Labour-led administrations since 1999 explicitly recognised the market failures of a wholly commercial broadcasting sector and re-emphasised television's cultural and democratic functions in their policy thinking.
The Clark government's highest profile broadcasting reform to date was the restructuring of TVNZ as a Crown entity in 2003. This introduced a dual remit whereby the broadcaster had to maintain its commercial performance while implementing a new public service Charter; the TVNZ Charter would require the negotiation and reconciliation of contradictory commercial and public service imperatives. The final version of the TVNZ Charter included a range of public service objectives and expectations. However, this dual remit precluded any transformation of TVNZ into fully-fledged public service broadcaster, TVNZ's efforts to balance its pursuit of commercial performance and Charter objectives were soon being criticised. Despite some investment in local content, including new documentaries and discussion programmes, the content on TV One and TV2 remained similar to the pre-charter schedules, with a continuing high proportion of light entertainment and reality-TV shows. TVNZ continues to pay dividends to the Crown.
However, from 2006 until 2009 TVNZ received $15.11 million each year from Government to assist it with fulfilling Charter obligations. There was much debate about the initial secrecy surrounding funding allocations and the programmes supported; the allocation of $5 million toward coverage of the 2008 Olympics, the rights for which are secured by a competitive tender between broadcasters, was the most controversial. In 2009 the Government gave control of that funding to funding agency NZ On Air. NZ On Air announced the creation of the contestable "Platinum Fund" in April 2009, setting aside the $15.11 million for high quality drama and other programme types. Following the election of a National Party-led government under John Key in 2008, the Charter was abolished in favour of a return to the 1990s model of a full commercial broadcaster. There is much debate on the future of TVNZ, which focuses on the nature of public service broadcasting and its commercial role. An example was in a memo called A More Public Broadcaster written by outgoing Chief Executive Ian Fraser to the board of TVNZ in October 2005, was obtained and released by Green MP Sue Kedgley.
The memo outlined three options. These were: TV One as a non-commercial network, like ABC in Australia, charged with delivering Charter values, merging with Radio New Zealand and Māori Television TV One a semi-commercial broadcaster with no more than six minutes of advertisements an hour like SBS in Australia TV One and TV2 remaining unchanged, but two new public service channels being broadcast via digital television. TV One and TV2 are now commercial with 15 – 20 minutes of ads per hour, plus ads overplayed over programs. On 15 February 2006, a group of 31 prominent New Zealanders signed an open letter, published as a full-page newspaper advertisement, calling for
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