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verification. (January 2012) |
Onslow College | |
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Address | |
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Burma Road 6440 New Zealand | |
Coordinates | 41°13′51″S 174°47′49″E / 41.2307°S 174.7970°E |
Information | |
Type | State co-ed secondary; years 9–13 |
Motto |
Latin: Levavi oculos meos in montes Māori: Ka anga atu aku kanohi ki nga maunga Lift your eyes to the hills |
Established | 1956; 68 years ago |
Ministry of Education Institution no. | 269 |
Principal | Sheena Millar |
School roll | 1,073 [1] (February 2024) |
Socio-economic decile | 10Z [2] |
Website |
onslow |
Onslow College is a state co-educational secondary school located in Johnsonville, a suburb of Wellington, New Zealand. It had a student population in 2020 of 1250 students. [3] The current principal is Sheena Millar.
Onslow College opened in 1956 to serve Wellington's rapidly growing northern suburbs. [4] [5] It was named after the 4th Earl of Onslow, governor of New Zealand from 1889 to 1892. [4]
The school roll grew from 201 third form pupils in 1956 to 1180 pupils in 1969. [4]
The "Onslow Way" is difficult to define but a former principal Stuart Martin described it as "socially liberal but educationally conservative, decile 10 but physically run down". [4] In 1969, Peggy-Anne Wendelken became New Zealand's first woman chair of a school board of governors; at this time Onslow's board had student representation, twenty years before this became a legal requirement. [4]
The school has not had a school uniform since 1974 when it was abolished following student protest, [6] despite the strong opposition of the Headmaster. [4] In 2016 Onslow was one of the first schools in the region to have gender-neutral toilets for students. [7]
Several staff have received awards for teaching excellence. Terry Burrell, received the prestigious Prime Minister's Science Teacher Prize in 2014, [8] and the same year Esme Danielsen (Maths) received a Woolf Fisher Fellowship. [9]
Onslow students won The Prime Minister's Future Scientist Prize in 2009, 2016 and 2018. [10]
Music – Smokefree Rockquest Wellington regional finalists in 2021 were Obsidian Sun. [11] In 2016 Onslow College bands and individuals took out 5 of the 8 awards the Regional Final: Best Vocalist – Raquel Abolins-Reid, Musicianship Award – Noah Spargo, Best Lyricist – Sarah Mc Bride, 3rd placed band – Bird on a Wire, 1st placed band and overall winners of the Wellington Regional Final – Retrospect. [12] [13]
In 2017 Onslow College won the Wellington regional "Festival Cup" [14] for the school best representing the spirit of the Big Sing, [15] a school choral festival organised by the New Zealand Choral Federation.
On 13 February 1997, 18-year-old former student Nicholas Hawker murdered 15-year-old St Mary's College student Vanessa Woodman on the school's grounds. Woodman was strangled, had her throat slit, and was stabbed 32 times. Hawker was sentenced to life imprisonment with a 10-year non-parole period. [16] He was released on parole in 2015, but is not allowed in the North Island. [17]
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adding to it. (July 2014) |
The school has had the following principals: [4]
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verifiability policy. (January 2024) |
Onslow College is a co-ed state high school in Wellington with 1250 students including 50 international students