Longburn Adventist College is an integrated co-educational Christian school in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

for years 7 to 13. It is located just west of

Palmerston North Palmerston North (; mi, Te Papa-i-Oea, known colloquially as Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatu Plains, the city is near the north bank of the ...

in the Manawatu District in the small dairy town of

Longburn Longburn (or Karere) is a rural settlement just outside Palmerston North in the Manawatū-Whanganui area of New Zealand. Made up of large dairy processing plants Longburn is often mistaken to be a small township and not seen as a large satellite t ...

. It is a part of the

Seventh-day Adventist education The Seventh-day Adventist educational system, part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, is overseen by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists located in Silver Spring, Maryland. The educational system is a Christian school-based syst ...

system, the world's second largest Christian school system.

History

The college was founded by the

Seventh-day Adventist Church The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...

in 1908 and was originally sited at

Pukekura Pukekura is located near Lake Ianthe in the West Coast region of the South Island. passes through Pukekura on its route between Ross and Harihari, and the settlement is roughly 35 minutes south of Hokitika and an hour north of Franz Josef Gl ...

, near

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

. The founder principal was Pastor Frank Chaney from

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. He was the principal, and was responsible for the design and construction of the original school, built largely with volunteer student labour. A decision was made to relocate the college to Longburn in 1913 to be closer to the centre of the country's population at that time. Initially the college at Longburn was known as the 'Oroua Missionary College'. In the early days of the college, the focus was on training young people for

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

service and most students worked, as well as studied, to pay their fees. The college ran a

dairy farm Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for long-term production of milk, which is processed (either on the farm or at a dairy plant, either of which may be called a dairy) for eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history th ...

, commercial

vegetable garden The traditional kitchen garden, vegetable garden, also known as a potager (from the French ) or in Scotland a kailyaird, is a space separate from the rest of the residential garden – the ornamental plants and lawn areas. It is used for grow ...

, glasshouses, a basket factory and a lampshade business and it was from these enterprises that students earned their fees. Subjects originally offered included building construction, agriculture, secretarial and Bible work.

After World War II

Following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, secondary school classes were added to the courses offered at Longburn and in the 1960s the first year of a BA in Theology was offered. Primary teacher training was offered in the early 1970s until 1990. Up until the 1970s, most Longburn students were boarders, but day students began to increase in numbers as local residents took advantage of the secondary schooling offered at Longburn. In the late 1980s, the college began to struggle for student numbers as the fees needed to run a private school excluded a number of potential students. In 1993 Longburn became a fully

state-integrated school In New Zealand, a state-integrated school is a former private school which has integrated into the state education system under the Private Schools Conditional Integration Act 1975, becoming a state school while retaining its special character. ...

operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church and student numbers have increased to around the 280–300 mark each year. Longburn Adventist College is now a Year 7–13 school with the majority of the students being day students, mainly from the

area.

Bruce Sharp, Principal from 2006 to 2015

In 2006 the school's roll was approved by the Ministry of Education for an increase. This was met with much relief, meaning more options available for students to choose from as well as helping the school to rise up from the financial difficulties it had faced since before previous principal Brian Mercer. In 2006 Mercer and vice principal Terry Rogers resigned from their roles to return to Australia. The new principal announced was Bruce Sharp who was already a teacher at the school when he applied for the position.

LAC House

'LAC House' became the official title for the Longburn Adventist College Boys' and Girls' Dormitories on 29 August 2013. The motto for LAC House is "Kia Puāwai Tātou , The Lord's Plans" based on Jeremiah 29:11

New Principal

In 2016 Mr Brendan van Oostveen took up the role of principal at LAC. Mr van Oostveen was previously Deputy Principal at LAC from 2006 and prior to that he was a teacher at Tamatea College in the Hawkes Bay.

Reunion

The school celebrated its 100th anniversary in March 2008 by publishing a book.

Former names

*Pukekura Training School (Cambridge) 1908–1912 *Oroua Missionary College 1913–1923 *New Zealand Missionary College 1924–1966 *Longburn College 1967–1985 *Longburn Adventist College 1986–

Curriculum

The school's curriculum consists primarily of the standard courses taught at

college preparatory school A college-preparatory school (usually shortened to preparatory school or prep school) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily designed to prepare students for higher education ...

s across the world. All students are required to take classes in the

core Core or cores may refer to: Science and technology * Core (anatomy), everything except the appendages * Core (manufacturing), used in casting and molding * Core (optical fiber), the signal-carrying portion of an optical fiber * Core, the centra ...

areas of English, Basic Sciences, Mathematics, and Social Sciences.

Spiritual aspects

All students take religion classes each year that they are enrolled. These classes cover topics in

biblical The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

history and Christian and

denominational A religious denomination is a subgroup within a religion that operates under a common name and tradition among other activities. The term refers to the various Christian denominations (for example, Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and the many variet ...

doctrines. Instructors in other disciplines also begin each class period with prayer or a short devotional thought, many which encourage student input. Weekly, the entire student body gathers together in the auditorium for an hour-long chapel service. Outside the classrooms, there is year-round spiritually oriented programming that relies on student involvement.

References

External links

Longburn Adventist College Website
{{Schools in Manawatu-Wanganui Secondary schools in Manawatū-Whanganui Educational institutions established in 1908 Boarding schools in New Zealand Adventist secondary schools in New Zealand 1908 establishments in New Zealand