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Lumen accipe et imperti
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Single Sex-Boys State Secondary (Year 9-13)
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1867
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Dufferin Street, Wellington
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Roger Moses
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1600 (2006 estimate)
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10
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Ministry of Education Information
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''For other articles under the same title, visit the
Disambiguation Page .''
is a boys-only state secondary school in
Wellington ,
New Zealand . It is located next to
Government House , the
Basin Reserve and
Wellington East Girls' College .
Wellington College is currently a day school, but, until 1981 it also had boarding students. The College’s sole boarding house, Firth House, has been demolished.
Students at the school generally achieve above-average school examination results for
University Entrance and
Scholarship .
Former pupils include four
Governors-General Of New Zealand , 9
Rhodes Scholars and over 40
All Blacks .
The
Visitor to the Wellington College is the Governor-General of New Zealand.
Wellington College was founded originally as the Wellington Grammar School in
1853 under a
Deed Of Endowment granted by the then
Governor Sir George Grey .
The school's own website claims 'a proud tradition dating back to 1867'. The original site of the Grammar School was on Wellington Terrace, near the present Wellington Motorway, where instruction began in
1867 . On
October 17 1874 the school opened for instruction at its present site next to Government House. It is situated on 12 ha of land on Mount Victoria.
The Grammar School was briefly an affiliated College to the
University Of New Zealand causing the name to change to .
In 1912 the school founded the
Gifford Observatory , thanks to the efforts of the astronomer
Charles Gifford who was a popular science teacher of the school at the time. The observatory was first established on land that is now occupied by Wellington East Girls' College. In 1926 the observatory was moved to its current site, in the town belt above Wellington College, behind Government House.
The school's own style of slang has all but died out, and administration of "tests" to new boys about terminology and the layout of the school by prefects is now an unpopular practice. Until recently, the practice of "pocketting"—ripping off the shirt pockets of new students—was a strong tradition. This form of bullying was put to an end when a uniform change was made, where the uniform shirts usually worn by junior boys no longer had front pockets.
in the Memorial Hall]]
- Lieutenant General Lord Freyberg Of Wellington , Victoria Cross in World War I and Governor-General
- Sir Denis Blundell , Governor-General
- Sir Paul Reeves , Archbishop Of New Zealand and Governor-General
- Sir Michael Hardie Boys , Governor-General
- Lord Grey Of Naunton , Governor (his most famous posting as Governor Of Northern Ireland )
- J C Beaglehole , historian
- Sir Brian Barratt-Boyes , surgeon
- Sir William Pickering , space scientist
- John Campbell , New Zealand television personality
- Marc Ellis , New Zealand Rugby Player
Wellington College has been an important school in the development of
Rugby Football .
The first inter-school rugby match in the world, according to Australasian historian
Spiro Zavos , was between Wellington College and
Nelson College in 1870 at the
Basin Reserve . The game was won by Wellington 14–nil (Zavos p. 52).
Zavos further asserts that the "penalty try" was invented by
Joseph Firth , later headmaster of Wellington College (Zavos pp.54, 55). In 1893, in a game between Athletic Club and East Christchurch, Firth awarded a try to a player who had been impeded, reasoning that if a team breached the rules of the game, then the team that was wronged should be able to convert the other team's "advantage" into points. The decision was contested, but the IRB eventually agreed to adopt it. Zavos rates this development very highly, saying it was "as important as the development of the indiarubber bladder." (Zavos p. 55).
The Quadrangular Rugby Football Tournament between Wellington College,
Nelson College ,
Christ's College , and the
Wanganui Collegiate School has been running since 1925. A historical accident means that by tradition halves in Quad games are 5 minutes shorter than in normal rugby (35 instead of 40 minutes).
Reference: Zavos, S ''How to watch a game of rugby'' (Awa Press, Wellington, N.Z., 2004) ISBN 0958250936
Two other Wellington secondary schools,
Rongotai College near the airport and
Wellington Girls' College in
Thorndon , have in the past been governed by the Governors of the Wellington College. They have since been made independent of the College.
Successive
National administrations from the 1960s to the 1980s have made some of the most controversial suggestions to the school including a take-over by the
Wellington High School and coeducation. These administrations have also been largely successful in demolishing the majority of the
Neo-Gothic ,
Neo-Classical and
Georgian Revival buildings on the Wellington College estate (most significant, the Old and West Schools), replacing them with pre-designed "standard state school" blocks. As a result a few extant buildings are placed under historical protection. The school has recently announced plans to reconstruct some of the buildings.
Wellington College currently operates an
Enrolment Scheme . Previously, Wellington College had a selective entry scheme including entry by examination, by the award of a sport scholarship, or by having a father or grandfather who attended the College. The effects of this change on College (and other formerly selective schools) are not yet clear.
As of February
2006 , the current Head Master of the College is R.J. (Roger) Moses who succeeded H.G. (Harvey) Rees-Thomas in
1995 .
