Marcellin College, Auckland

Marcellin College File:Marcellin College.png
Address
617 Mt Albert Road, Royal Oak, Auckland, New Zealand
Coordinates
Information
Type	Integrated secondary (year 7-13) Roman Catholic Co-Ed
Motto	Optima Quaere (Seek The Best)
Established	1958; 66 years ago
Ministry of Education Institution no.	63
Principal	Jan Waelen
School roll	583 (March 2016)
Socio-economic decile	2F
Website	www.marcellin.school.nz

Marcellin College is an integrated, co-educational college in Royal Oak, Auckland, New Zealand for students in Year 7 to Year 13. Marcellin College was founded by the Marist Brothers in 1958 as a secondary school for boys only. The school is located on spacious grounds which were formerly part of the Pah estate. 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" (largely located in the suburb of Hillsborough).

Origins

The college was established in 1958, for boys, by the Marist Brothers as a normal school for the training of Brothers as teachers. 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 behind and adjacent to the college site. When the school opened it only had two classes - Forms 1 and 2 (years 7 and 8). 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.

Coeducation 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. However, it entered the state system as a co-educational secondary school because in 1980 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, at the behest of their founder, Mary MacKillop (St Mary of the Cross), arrived in Auckland from Adelaide and opened their first school in a converted shop in Karangahape Road. 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.

Notable alumni

Main category: People educated at Marcellin College, Auckland

• Roy Asotasi (1982-) New Zealand rugby league representative
• Monty Betham (1978-) New Zealand rugby league representative and professional boxer
• Mark Hotchin (1958-), Businessman, director of Hanover Finance
• Chris Lewis (1957-), Tennis professional, Men's finalist at the 1983 Wimbledon Championships.
• Dylan Mika (1972-) New Zealand All Black and Samoa representative
• Johnny Ngauamo (1969-), rugby union) Auckland Blues (Super Rugby) and Tonga representative
• Joseph Parker (1992-), Professional Boxer, Competed at the 2010 Commonwealth Games
• Fetu'u Vainikolo (1985-), professional rugby union player, representative of Tonga

Sources

• Pat Gallager, The Marist Brothers in New Zealand Fiji & Samoa 1876-1976, New Zealand Marist Brothers' Trust Board, Tuakau, 1976.
• E.R. Simmons, A Brief History of the Catholic Church in New Zealand, Catholic Publication Centre, Auckland, 1978 and In Cruce Salus, A History of the Diocese of Auckland 1848 - 1980, Catholic Publication Centre, Auckland 1982.
• 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.
• Michael King, God's farthest outpost : a history of Catholics in New Zealand, Viking Press, Auckland 1997.
• Nicholas Reid, James Michael Liston: A Life, Victoria University Press, Wellington, 2006.
• Diane Strevens, MacKillop Women: The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart Aotearoa New Zealand 1883-2006, David Ling, Auckland, 2008.