Marcellin College is a Catholic, integrated, co-educational college in Royal Oak,

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

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 students in Year 7 to Year 13. The college was founded by the

Marist Brothers The Marist Brothers of the Schools, commonly known as simply the Marist Brothers, is an international community of Catholic religious institute of brothers. In 1817, St. Marcellin Champagnat, a Marist priest from France, founded the Marist Brothe ...

in 1958 as a school for boys only. The school follows the values of Marist education, which was formed by the name of the school and patron saint, St Marcellin Champagnat. The school is located on grounds which had been part of the Pah estate. It has an extensive woodland on its southern and western boundaries. Most of the former Pah estate contiguous with Marcellin College is now owned by the Auckland Council and is maintained as a park known as "Monte Cecilia Park." The Auckland Franciscan Friary and Retreat Centre is just across Monte Cecilia Park from the college. A Discalced Carmelite Monastery (under the patronage of the

Holy Family The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on, but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de Laval, the fir ...

and St Thomas, Apostle) is directly opposite the college on Mt Albert Rd.

Ethos

In 2022, "Marcellin College has seen strong roll growth and rapidly growing popularity". The college has a diverse, multicultural roll. In 2014, the school's gender composition was Male 56% and Female 44% and its ethnic composition was Māori 7%, NZ European/Pakeha 8%, Pacifica 58%. Asian 24% and other 3%. There were four international students. Academically, the school offers for senior years the

National Certificate of Educational Achievement The National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) is the official secondary-school qualification in New Zealand. Phased in between 2002 and 2004, it replaced three older secondary-school qualifications. The New Zealand Qualifications Au ...

assessment system (NCEA).

Principals

* Jan Waelan (2015 - 2019) * Dean Wearmouth (2019 - 2022) * Maria Prescott (2022 - present)

Origins

The college was established in 1958, for boys, by the

as a

normal school A normal school or normal college is an institution created to train teachers by educating them in the norms of pedagogy and curriculum. In the 19th century in the United States, instruction in normal schools was at the high school level, turni ...

''Marist Brothers' Centenary: 100 years in Auckland 1885-1985'', Marist Brothers, Auckland, 1985, p. 13. for the training of Brothers as teachers in intermediate classes.Marcellin College Prospectus 2016
(Retrieved 10 June 2016) Until 1958 the site of the college had been occupied by the Marist Brothers scholasticate. From the scholasticate, which was established in 1943, the young teachers had to travel to the Marist school in Vermont St, Ponsonby. This was expensive and inconvenient. In 1957 the scholasticate was removed to new buildings erected on land (called ''Monte Cecelia'') purchased from the

Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute had about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They a ...

behind and adjacent to the college site. A new building called Marcellin Hall was built for the training of Marist Brothers. This opened in 1961. In 1979 Marcellin Hall became a Pastoral Centre for personal renewal, theological reflection and apostolic effectiveness with residential courses, seminars and retreats there conducted by a community of nuns, priests and brothers. Some parts of this building are included in the present school.

Early days

The first building of the school was a block of four classrooms and when the college commenced in 1958 it had only two year levels, years 7 and 8 - then called Forms 1 and 2. The staff of the scholasticate acted as the teachers until the College was staffed independently. The College was soon operating as a full secondary school. The need to devote resources to the new school considerably stretched the Marist Brothers and they had to reduce staff or increase class sizes at some other schools.

St Benedict's College and integration

In 1982 the proprietor of Marcellin College signed an integration agreement with the Minister of Education and the college entered the State education system as a

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. ...

. However, it entered the state system as a co-educational secondary school because in 1981 the school had incorporated a secondary school for girls, St Benedict's College, Newton, which closed in that year. St Benedict's College had its origins in 1884 when the

Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, often called the Josephites or Brown Joeys, are a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Mary MacKillop (1842–1909). Members of the congregation use the postnominal initials RSJ (Religious Siste ...

, at the behest of their founder,

Mary MacKillop Mary Helen MacKillop RSJ (15 January 1842 – 8 August 1909) was an Australian religious sister who has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church, as St Mary of the Cross. Of Scottish descent, she was born in Melbourne but is best known f ...

(St Mary of the Cross), arrived in Auckland from Adelaide and opened their first school in a converted shop in

Karangahape Road Karangahape Road (commonly known as K' Road) is one of the main streets in the central business district (CBD) of Auckland, New Zealand. The massive expansion of motorways through the nearby inner city area – and subsequent flight of resident ...

. They founded St Benedict's College (secondary) and St Benedict's School (primary) near St Benedict's Church, Newton in 1886, and in 1898 a large new school was built on the opposite corner from the church. From the early 1970s, population drift coinciding with, and to some extent due to, the construction of the nearby Auckland motorway system, led to a dramatic fall off in pupils. The secondary college merged with Marcellin College in 1981, and the primary school closed. Marcellin College became fully co-educational in 1993.

Notable alumni

This is a list of notable former students of Marcellin College, Auckland and St Benedict's College, Newton, which amalgamated with Marcellin College in 1981. * Roy Asotasi (1982-), New Zealand rugby league representative *

Monty Betham La’auli Montgomery Junior "Monty" Betham (born 12 March 1978) is a professional boxer, and former professional rugby league footballer. A New Zealand international representative and , he played club football for the New Zealand Warriors i ...

(1978-), New Zealand rugby league representative and professional boxer * Greg Burgess (born 1954), representative national New Zealand rugby union player,

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, ...

prop (1980 and 1980) * Mark Hotchin (1958-), businessman, director of Hanover Finance * Chris Lewis (1957-), tennis professional, men's finalist at the 1983 Wimbledon Championships. Joseph Romanos, ''Chris Lewis: All the Way to Wimbledon'', Rugby Press, Auckland, 1984, p. 43, . * Adrienne Lili'i (born 1970) - former New Zealand

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 ...

player. *

Dylan Mika Dylan Gabriel Mika (17 April 1972 – 20 March 2018) was a New Zealand-born rugby union player who represented the national teams of both Samoa and New Zealand. Born in Auckland, Mika was initially educated at Marcellin College, before movi ...

(1972-2018), former rugby union player; New Zealand

All Black 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, ...

and Samoa representative. *

Ronaldo Mulitalo Ronaldo Mulitalo (born 17 November 1999) is a professional rugby league footballer who plays as a er for the Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks in the National Rugby League (NRL). He has played for both and New Zealand at international level. Backgro ...

(1999-), professional rugby league player, representative of

Samoa national rugby league team The Samoa national rugby league team represents Samoa in rugby league football and has participated in international competition since 1986. Known as Western Samoa before 1997, the team is administered by Rugby League Samoa and are nicknamed To ...

and current

Cronulla Sharks The Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks are an Australian professional rugby league club based in Cronulla, in the Sutherland Shire, Southern Sydney, New South Wales. They compete in the National Rugby League (NRL), Australasia's premier rugby league ...

player *

Johnny Ngauamo Johnny Fotu Ngauamo, was born on 20 July 1969 in Nuku'alofa, Tonga. He received his secondary education at Marcellin College, Auckland. He is a Rugby Union international player who played for Tonga in the position of centre (1.85 metres and 96& ...

(1969-), rugby union player, Auckland Blues (Super Rugby) and

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

representative * Joseph Parker (1992-), professional boxer, competed at the

2010 Commonwealth Games The 2010 Commonwealth Games (Hindi: 2010 राष्ट्रमण्डल खेल), officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, was an international multi-sport event that was held in Delhi, India, ...

; World Boxing Organization (WBO) heavyweight champion (2016–2018) * Freda Stark (1910 - 1999) - dancer (St Benedict's) *

Fetu'u Vainikolo Fetu'u Moana Vainikolo (born 30 January 1985) is a Tongan rugby union player who currently plays for the Utah Warriors in Major League Rugby (MLR). His regular playing position is Wing. Early life Born in Tonga, Vainikolo's family moved to New ...

(1985-), professional rugby union player, representative of

Notes

Sources

* Pat Gallager, ''The Marist Brothers in New Zealand Fiji & Samoa 1876-1976'', New Zealand Marist Brothers' Trust Board, Tuakau, 1976. * ''St. Benedict’s College : corner East St. & St. Benedicts St., Newton, Auckland, New Zealand'' or ''Souvenir magazine St. Benedict’s College, 1980'', The College, Auckland, 1980. * Nicholas Reid, ''

James Michael Liston James Michael Liston (9 June 1881 – 8 July 1976) was the 7th Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland, New Zealand. Early life James Michael Liston (registered at birth as Michael James Liston) was born in Dunedin on 9 June 1881, one of a family ...

: A Life'',

Victoria University Press Te Herenga Waka University Press or THWUP (formerly Victoria University Press) is the book publishing arm of Victoria University of Wellington, located in Wellington, New Zealand. As of 2022, the press had published around 800 books. History Vi ...

, Wellington, 2006. * Diane Strevens, ''MacKillop Women: The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart Aotearoa New Zealand 1883-2006'', David Ling, Auckland, 2008. {{Schools in Auckland Educational institutions established in 1958 Marist Brothers schools Catholic secondary schools in Auckland 1958 establishments in New Zealand