Macleans College

Macleans College
File:Macleans College logo.png
Location
2 Macleans Road Eastern Beach Auckland 2012 New Zealand
Coordinates
Information
Type	State co-educational
Motto	Virtue Mine Honour
Established	1980
Ministry of Education Institution no.	41
Principal	Steven Hargreaves (2017)
Grades	Secondary
Enrolment	2940 (July 2025)
Socio-economic decile	9Q
Website	www.macleans.school.nz

Macleans College is a co-educational state secondary school located in Eastern Beach, Auckland, New Zealand. The school is named after the Scottish MacLean family who lived and farmed the land of the school and surrounding reserves, and the school emblem contains the castle from their family crest along with six waves which symbolise the seaside location of the school. Metro placed Macleans College as the number one Auckland high school in 2010 among those in the Cambridge International Examinations system. In 2014, Macleans College ranked 2nd nationally in the Cambridge International Examinations.

File:Macleans college Auckland New Zealand front office.jpg

The front of the main office of Macleans college

History

The school is named after the MacLean family. Robert and Every Maclean immigrated to New Zealand from Scotland. The family farmed the areas of land located in Howick that is the school's current location, as well as the surrounding government controlled reserves.

The school was opened in 1980 by then Governor General Sir David Beattie with an initial roll of 199 students. The first principal was Colin Prentice, who later became director of World Vision in New Zealand, followed by his deputy Allan McDonald in 1989. In 2000, upon McDonald's retirement, Byron J. Bentley, became principal. Since 2018, upon Bentley's retirement, Steven Hargreaves became the new principal, and has been serving the school ever since.

In 2015, the school auditorium was renamed the 'Colin Prentice Auditorium' in honour of the late founding principal after his death. In 2017, Byron Bentley announced his retirement as principal. He stood as the longest serving principal of the school, governing for 18 years. An official student publication "The Collegian" launched in 2018.

House system

Upon admission, pupils are placed into one of the eight 'whanau houses'. These houses are named after significant New Zealanders, and the traits and achievements of this person influences the houses environment, charity and what it encourages. The selection is random, unless the student has or had any sibling or parent attend the school wherein the student has an option to be enrolled in the same house, or be randomly placed in any of the other seven.

The Whanau House system at Macleans divides the school into houses of about 300 students each, with two form classes of 30 or so students for each year level, all from the same house. The 'whanau house' system had previously been trialled at Penrose High School (now One Tree Hill College) by modifying existing buildings, but Macleans College was the first state school in New Zealand to be purpose-built around the system. Recently though, with the influx of new students, some houses have 3 form classes per year or more to accommodate the students.

House name	House mascot	House colour	Year opened	Service Aspect
Hillary	Yeti	Green	1980	Himalayan Trust
Kupe	Kiwi	Gold	1981	Kiwis for Kiwi
Rutherford	Elephant	Red	1982	Hato Hone St John
Mansfield	'Dog' from Footrot Flats	Purple	1984	Guide dogs
Te Kanawa	Taniwha	Dark Blue	1987	Child Cancer Foundation
Batten	Buzzy Bee	Platinum	1998	Westpac Rescue Helicopter
Snell	Black panther	Black	2001	Halberg Trust
Upham	Lion	Light Blue	2003	RSA

The original houses were Kupe, Hillary, Te Kanawa and Rutherford, although Hillary was rebuilt and reopened on 29 October 1992 after it burnt down on 13 October 1991. Mansfield House was hastily opened in 1984 due to a surge in the school's roll, however the building itself was used earlier as temporary classrooms, having been airlifted via helicopter as prefabricated units. More houses have been added as the roll has increased, with the latest addition being Upham, which was opened in 2003.

Setting and buildings

Macleans College is located in Macleans Park, the largest passive reserve in the Howick/Pakuranga district. Due to its sloping terrain, the school has wide views of the adjacent Eastern Beach. The property where Macleans is located on was bought from the Crown by Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki for $97 million in 2021.

Each Whanau House has a one-storey building (with the exception of Batten, which has two due to being on a slope). This is due to a ban of buildings of over one storey in the whole Bucklands Beach-Eastern Beach area due to the scenery. Each house contains around 5 classrooms and 1 science lab and sometimes a computer lab, and often several associated prefabs (Kupe, Mansfield, Te Kanawa, Batten). Each Whanau House building also has a large central indoor commons area, which, along with being a general purpose socialising space, is used for house assemblies, lunch eating, and various co-curricular activities. Hillary, Kupe, Rutherford and Te Kanawa were built to a common design plan, known as the Whanau plan or S80 plan. Classroom blocks nearly identical to these were also built at Penrose High School and at Mountainview High School in Timaru. However these buildings have since been rebuilt according to new plan allowing for less classrooms and larger open commons spaces.

The school also contains specialised non-house associated Science, Technology, Computing, Graphics, Art, Music, and Engineering buildings, along with the large Barbara Kendall gymnasium, a large covered recreational area (The Macleans Cloud), and a smaller Colin Prentice auditorium for productions and performance.

In July 2025, through the government's Budget 25 scheme, Macleans College received funding for 8 new classrooms to combat the growing population in the surrounding area.

Students

Demographics

At the May 2014 Education Review Office (ERO) review of the school, Macleans College had 2271 students, not including 304 international students. Fifty-three percent of students were male and 47 percent were female. The school had an Asian majority with 54 percent of students identifying as such, including 31 percent as Chinese and 11 percent as Indian. Forty percent of students identified as European, including 27 percent as New Zealand European (Pākehā). Māori made up three percent and Pacific Islanders make up one percent of the roll.

As of 2025, Macleans College has an Equity Index of 387, placing it amongst schools whose students have the fewest socioeconomic barriers to achievement (roughly equivalent to deciles 9 and 10 under the former socio-economic decile system).

International students

The colleges main foreign student demographic is Chinese in ethnicity, though other students from Germany, Hungary, Brazil, Japan, Nepal etc. are also present.

Qualifications and curriculum

In 2013, 97.6 percent of students leaving Macleans College held at least NCEA Level 1 or IGCSE, 95.5 percent held at least NCEA Level 2 or AS, and 86.2 percent held at least University Entrance standard. This is compared to 85.2%, 74.2%, and 49.0% respectively for all students nationally.

Until 2018, Macleans College offered both NCEA Level 1 and IGCSE in Year 11 as pathways into NCEA Level 2 and CIE AS Level. However, in response to external pressures and a commitment to better preparing students for their Year 12 and 13 examinations, the school made the strategic decision to move away from these curricula. In their place, Macleans College developed the Macleans Certification (MCERT). MCERT incorporates the most valuable elements of both IGCSE and NCEA Level 1, providing students with a rigorous and well-rounded foundation for senior academic success.

Notable alumni

Main category: People educated at Macleans College

• Andrew de Boorder – cricketer, Auckland
• Derek de Boorder – cricketer, Auckland
• Scott Campbell – baseball, Minor league, Arizona Diamondbacks
• Colin Craig – businessman and founding leader of the Conservative Party of New Zealand
• Jarek Goebel – rugby, Auckland Blues
• Kirsten Hellier – javelin, 1992 Olympics, 1990 and 1994 Commonwealth Games
• Barbara Kendall – windsurfing, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympics; the Barbara Kendall school gymnasium is named after her
• Sean Lovemore – football, Wellington Phoenix
• Aaron McIntosh – windsurfing, 1996 and 2000 Olympics
• Corey Main – swimming, 2016 Olympics
• Kyle Mills – cricketer, New Zealand team
• Cameron Norrie – tennis, Achieved world ranking of No. 10 in April 2022
• Rhona Robertson – badminton, 1992 and 1996 Olympics
• Kamahl Santamaria – journalist
• Ryan Sissons – triathlete, 2012 Olympics
• Natalie Taylor – women's basketball, 2008 Olympics
• Brooke Walker – cricketer, New Zealand team
• Nathan Walker – football, Wellington Phoenix
• Mark Weldon – swimmer, 1992 Olympics, former CEO of the New Zealand Exchange (NZX) and MediaWorks New Zealand
• Ingrid Leary – Labour MP for Dunedin South, since 2020

External links

• Macleans College website
• Education Review Office (ERO) reports for Macleans College