Tawa College is a state coeducational secondary school located in Tawa,

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

, New Zealand. The school opened in 1961, and primarily serves students in Tawa and the surrounding suburbs. A total of students from Years 9 to 13 attend the school as of

History

Tawa College opened in February 1961.

Demographics

At the September 2012

Education Review Office The Education Review Office (ERO) (Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture ...

(ERO) review, Tawa College had 1417 students enrolled, including nine

international student International students, or foreign students, are students who undertake all or part of their tertiary education in a country other than their own and move to that country for the purpose of studying. In 2019, there were over 6 million internati ...

s. Forty-six percent of students were male and 54 percent were female. Fifty-seven percent of students identified as

New Zealand European European New Zealanders, also known by the Māori-language loanword Pākehā, are New Zealanders of European descent. Most European New Zealanders are of British and Irish ancestry, with significantly smaller percentages of other European a ...

(Pākehā), 16 percent identified as

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

, 14 percent as

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

, 12 percent as

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...

s, and one percent as another ethnicity.

Blocks

Tawa College currently has 12 classroom blocks: A Block, B Block, C Block, D Block, E Block, F Block, G Block, H Block, J Block, K Block S Block and T Block. Like many New Zealand secondary schools of the era, the school was constructed to the Nelson Two-Storey standard plan, distinguished by its two-storey H-shaped classroom blocks. Tawa College has three of these blocks: B block, C block, and D block. A Block is the foods, dance, woodwork and art block. B Block is home to social studies classes as well as: psychology, history, geography, science and more. C Block is home to english, science, computer labs and more. D Block's classrooms includes: English, maths, maths offices, science and more. E Block is the language block with Japanese, Maori and french. F Block is the drama block with a miniature theatre which was recently revamped with the help from Nick Brown, HOD of Drama and Dance. G Block is a one story block which spans around the netball and basketball courts with all sorts of classrooms. H Block is the music block with: three studios, two music classrooms, a music office, a big music space, the school hall. J Block is the science block with two science classrooms. K Block is the retired kindergarten recently purchased by Tawa College and is currently used if there are no available classrooms. S Block is the special learning block for people with special learning needs.

Uniform A uniform is a variety of clothing worn by members of an organization while participating in that organization's activity. Modern uniforms are most often worn by armed forces and paramilitary organizations such as police, emergency services, ...

The traditional colours of Tawa College are blue, red and yellow, as seen in the school uniform, sports strips and crest. The uniform skirt for the girls is a

kilt A kilt ( gd, fèileadh ; Irish: ''féileadh'') is a garment resembling a wrap-around knee-length skirt, made of twill woven worsted wool with heavy pleats at the sides and back and traditionally a tartan pattern. Originating in the Scottish ...

made of Duncan

tartan Tartan ( gd, breacan ) is a patterned cloth consisting of criss-crossed, horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Sc ...

. The college has special permission from the

Scottish clan A Scottish clan (from Gaelic , literally 'children', more broadly 'kindred') is a kinship group among the Scottish people. Clans give a sense of shared identity and descent to members, and in modern times have an official structure recognised ...

, to whom the tartan belongs (as intellectual property), to use the tartan in its uniform.

Tawa Recreation Centre

The Tawa Recreation Centre (informally known as "the rec centre") is a joint venture between Tawa College and the Wellington City Council. The facility contains two gymnasiums, two sets of male and female changing rooms, a large foyer area, P.E equipment sheds, a Wellington City Council Office and reception area, P.E department offices, and a classroom on the mezzanine.

Successes

The school is well known for its achievements in the arts, notably singing, including several national and international barbershop quartet and chorus champions, such as the

Musical Island Boys Musical Island Boys is the barbershop quartet that won the International Quartet Championship for 2014 at the Barbershop Harmony Society's annual international convention, in Las Vegas, Nevada. From Wellington, New Zealand, the quartet began in ...

(national barbershop champions, 2004; international collegiate quartet champions, 2006; Barbershop Harmony Society International Quartet Champions, 2014). Their auditioned chamber choir Blue Notes have also received national success, including their achievements at The Big Sing festival, where they received the gold award. They also have a big reputation due to their wrestling team, TCW, who have been twice national champions. In 2009, the principal at the time, Mr Lucas, and approximately 38 year 13 chemistry students beat the Guinness world record for the most hours of consecutive teaching with their 28-hour chemistry teach-a-thon. This was put together as a fundraiser for

World Vision In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

, and through it they raised over $3,000.

Notable alumni

Notable alumni include: *

Jerry Collins Jerry Collins (4 November 1980 – 5 June 2015) was a Samoan – New Zealand rugby union player. He played for New Zealand, for whom he was capped 48 times, as well as for the Wellington Hurricanes in New Zealand, Toulon and Narbonne in the Rug ...

–

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987, ...

captain *

Sophie Devine Sophie Frances Monique Devine (born 1 September 1989) is a New Zealand sportswoman, who has represented New Zealand in both cricket for the New Zealand national women's cricket team (''White Ferns''), and in field hockey as a member of the New ...

– Women's Black Cap *

Taito Phillip Field Taito Phillip Hans Field (26 September 1952 – 23 September 2021) was a Samoan-born New Zealand trade unionist and politician. A Member of Parliament (MP) for South Auckland electorates from 1993 to 2008, Field was the first New Zealand MP of ...

– former Member of Parliament * Mark Gillespie –

Black Cap The black cap is a plain black fabric square formerly worn as symbolic headgear by English, Welsh, Irish and Northern Irish judges in criminal cases when passing a sentence of death. When worn, the square was placed on top of the judicial wig, ...

Blair Hilton Blair Hilton (born 28 August 1989 in Wellington) is a New Zealand field hockey player. At the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2016 Summer Olympics, he competed for the national team in the men's tournament. He also competed for New Zealand at the ...

– national field hockey representative and 2010 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist * Elizabeth Knox - New Zealand writer *

Nick Leggett Nicholas Oliver Leggett (born 1979) is a former New Zealand politician and, as of 2016, a member of the New Zealand National Party. He was the previous Mayor of Porirua, and at the time of his election in October 2010, he was the youngest mayor ...

– fourth

Mayor of Porirua The Mayor of Porirua is the head of the municipal government of Porirua, New Zealand, and presides over the Porirua City Council. The mayor is directly elected using the single transferable vote electoral system. There have been six mayors sinc ...

* Murray Mexted –

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

commentator, former All Black *

Kerry Prendergast Dame Kerry Leigh Prendergast (née Ferrier, born 28 March 1953) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 33rd Mayor of Wellington between 2001 and 2010, succeeding Mark Blumsky. She was the second woman to hold the position, after Fran W ...

– former Mayor of Wellington *

Lee Tamahori Warren Lee Tamahori (; born 17 June 1950) is a New Zealand filmmaker best known for directing the 1994 film '' Once Were Warriors'', the 2001 film '' Along Came a Spider'', and 2002's James Bond film '' Die Another Day''. Upbringing and early care ...

– film director *

Louis Fenton Louis Ferenc Puskas Fenton (born 3 April 1993) is a New Zealand professional footballer who plays for National Premier Leagues Queensland club Lions FC. Early life Fenton, whose mother is Hungarian and whose father is a postman, is named afte ...

– former member of Wellington Phoenix Football Club, All Whites *

Amelia Kerr Amelia Charlotte Kerr (born 13 October 2000) is a New Zealand cricketer who currently plays for Wellington and New Zealand. On 13 June 2018, Kerr made the highest individual score in a WODI match, and became the youngest cricketer, male or fema ...

– international cricketer, granddaughter of Bruce Murray *

Tony Backhouse Tony Backhouse (born 1947) is a singer, musician and composer from New Zealand and is a key player in the Australasian ''a cappella'' movement. He played in New Zealand bands such as the Crocodiles, and formed Australian ''a cappella'' groups, t ...

- musician and composer *

, 2014 Barbershop Harmony Society International Quartet Champions

Principals

* 1961–66 – Alan Mackie * 1966–81 – Eric Flaws * 1981–89 – Brian Walker * 1989–2002 – Bruce Murray * 2002–2021 – Murray Lucas *2022–present – Andrew Savage

References

External links

Tawa College Website
* {{Authority control Educational institutions established in 1961 Secondary schools in the Wellington Region Schools in Wellington City New Zealand secondary schools of Nelson plan construction 1961 establishments in New Zealand